Ceres & Trillium Seek Nominations to Honor Leader in Building Sustainable Global Economy

(3BL Media / theCSRfeed) BOSTON, MA - December 5, 2011 - Ceres and Trillium Asset Management are seeking nominations for the fifth annual Joan Bavaria Award. Submissions will be accepted until 5:00 p.m. ET on Monday, February 13, 2012. Nominations can be submitted at www.ceres.org/awards/joan-bavaria-award/nominate.

The Joan Bavaria Award honors unique investor, business, and NGO leaders who are working to transform the capital markets into a system that balances economic prosperity with social and environmental concerns. The winner of this year’s award will be announced at the opening reception of the 2012 Ceres Conference on Tuesday, April 24, 2012, in Boston.

  Bavaria founded both Ceres and Trillium Asset Management. She passed away in 2008 after a prolonged battle with cancer.   “Joan Bavaria was a pioneer of social investing whose vision and humanity has helped catalyze change in the capital markets to help create a more sustainable economy for a better world,” said Ceres President Mindy Lubber. “The Joan Bavaria Award honors and celebrates those individuals who are carrying out her grand vision of integrating sustainability into the capital markets for the health of the planet and its people.” This year, Ceres and Trillium Asset Management revised its award process and will now honor only one individual with the Joan Bavaria Award. In 2011, socially responsible investing advocates Peter Kinder, co-founder and former president of KLD Research & Analytics, and William Foote, founder and CEO of Root Capital, were recipients of the Joan Bavaria Award.

“It is humbling to be associated with such a visionary and intrepid leader as Joan Bavaria, whose example set the bar for all of us who followed in her footsteps,” said Foote in his acceptance speech last year. “We [Root Capital] are honored to play a small role as part of the growing community that is realizing her vision for a social capital market that builds prosperity in underserved communities.”
 

Previous winners also include the Center for Political Accountability in Washington, D.C., investor advocate Tim Smith of Walden Asset Management in Boston, sustainable business school Bainbridge Graduate Institute in Washington, the research collaborative Enhanced Analytics Initiative, and activist, prize-winning historian and Global Reporting Initiative founder Bob Massie.   For more information about the Joan Bavaria Award, visit www.ceres.org/awards/joan-bavaria-award or contact Kristin Erekson at erekson@ceres.org or 617-247-0700 x124. To submit a nomination, visit www.ceres.org/awards/joan-bavaria-award/nominate.   About Ceres Ceres is a coalition of investors and public interest organizations working with companies to address climate change and other sustainability challenges. Ceres directs the Investor Network on Climate Risk, a network of 100 institutional investors with collective assets of $10 trillion focused on the business impacts of climate change. www.ceres.org                         About Trillium Trillium Asset Management is the oldest independent investment advisor devoted exclusively to sustainable and responsible investing, with over $900 million in assets under management.  Trillium has been managing equity and fixed income investments for high net worth individuals, foundations, endowments, religious institutions, and other non-profits since 1982. www.trilliuminvest.com