As the year-end approaches, we are reflecting with gratitude on a period marked by extraordinary progress in system stewardship. Throughout the year, investors, researchers, and others have stepped forward to acknowledge that safeguarding long-term portfolio returns requires protecting the social and environmental systems that underpin the global economy. From groundbreaking externalities research to innovative engagement strategies with companies and sovereign governments, this year has shown what is possible when investors embrace their responsibility as stewards of the whole market.
This growing momentum inspires us as we look ahead to 2026. At The Shareholder Commons, we remain committed to creating and curating tools, frameworks, and resources that help investors align their actions with the human and ecological wellbeing that is essential to the long-term performance of diversified portfolios. The efforts highlighted in this post reflect a shift across the investment landscape. We’re excited to continue supporting this evolution and to work alongside all of you who are helping shape healthier, more resilient markets for the long term.
Externalities Investment Research Network Inaugural Roundtable
Founded in 2025 to support and disseminate robust research that quantifies the impacts of companies’ externalities on diversified portfolios, the Externalities Investment Research Network (EIRN) is playing an essential role providing insights to the application of system stewardship and system level investing. Its inaugural round of grants is funding research connecting portfolio allocation to externalities, assessing whole-portfolio externalities derived from biodiversity loss, and quantifying harms from woody biomass electricity generation at both the firm and portfolio level.
Recently, EIRN hosted its first ever roundtable in Madrid, where their first three grant recipients and others had the opportunity to share and discuss their research with a multi-disciplinary group of experts, including TSC’s Chief Research Officer Dan Osusky. The work of EIRN has the potential to be a cornerstone in the growing practice of system-level investing.
Learn more about EIRN’s research grants and follow them on LinkedIn for updates.
Beyond the Ballot: Green Century Leads Engagement with Sovereign Government
Welcome to Beyond the Ballot, a new feature where we celebrate systems-first initiatives that go beyond shareholder proposals, voting, and corporate engagement. Today’s inaugural highlight comes from Green Century Capital Management, featuring an engagement that aims to protect one of the globe’s vital shared ecological systems: a biodiversity hotspot.
Is your organization taking system stewardship action beyond voting and engagement? Email us if you think we should feature your work.
Indonesian forests are among the most biodiverse in the world, home to 10-15% of the world’s known plants and animals. While the country has massively reduced deforestation since 2016, a new government program, the Food and Energy Estates, threatens to undermine and reverse that progress. Cited as the largest deforestation project in the world, it could more than double Indonesia’s climate emissions, exacerbating financial and systemic risks.
The risks of biodiversity loss are particularly pertinent for long-term diversified investors, for whom overall performance of the market is responsible for the majority of returns. Over half of the world’s GDP is estimated to be moderately or highly dependent on nature and its services. This dependence coupled with rising deforestation and biodiversity loss risk an annual global GDP decline of $2.7 trillion in the near term if ecological tipping points are reached, threatening the ability of investors to meet their long-term financial commitments.
Green Century Capital Management and former US Ambassador to Indonesia Robert Blake are organizing an investor trip to Jakarta to meet with relevant government officials and companies on nature and climate-related risks and opportunities in Indonesia from February 9-13th.
Join a briefing on Thursday December 11th, 10-11am ET / 4-5pm CET to learn more about this opportunity and other ways to support this initiative. Fill out this form or email Annie Sanders, Green Century’s Director of Shareholder Advocacy, at asanders@greencentury.com to register for the briefing.
New Report from System Stewards: Upcoming IGCC Landscape Study and the Year in Review
As system stewardship matures and leaders innovate and operationalize its principles, the body of relevant work expands accordingly. In this post, we’re pleased to alert you to an upcoming report that integrates exceptional system stewardship thinking. Australian nonprofit Investor Group on Climate Change (IGCC) will release its Systems Stewardship Landscape Study on December 15 along with a companion podcast.
The report offers an insightful overview of systems stewardship—an increasingly vital lens for long-term investors—and incorporates survey results to shed light on how investors are currently putting systems thinking into practice. Keep an eye on IGCC’s website for the report’s December 15th release or consider signing up for their email updates to get alerts.
This will add to an expanding list of publications that acknowledge or promote the need for system stewardship. Over the last year, we have written about four publications:
- Sierra Club, The Long Term Will Be Decided Now: Why Climate Risk Demands System-Level Action from Investors,
- UKSIF, Scottish Widows, Canbury, Systemic Risks: A Framework for Portfolio Resilience,
- Majority Action, Emerging Technologies, Evolving Responsibilities: Why Investors Must Act to Mitigate AI’s System-Level Impacts,
- Responsible Investment Network – Universities (RINU) and Charities Responsible Investment Network (CRIN), Universal Ownership – A Guide for Charity and University Asset Owners.
In addition, some or all of these additional works from 2025 will be addressed in future issues of our newsletter:
- Rezonanz, The Stewardship Field Guide,
- Net Zero Lawyers Alliance, Sustainable Fiduciary Duty: The Report,
- Church of England Pensions Board and Wespath, What Does It Look Like for Asset Owners to Lead Right Now?
- AP7, Universal Ownership: Systems Thinking for Asset Owners,
- SHARE, Investor Guidance on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Amidst the Turmoil
Podcast Appearance: Rick Alexander on The Future of Finance
TSC’s CEO, Rick Alexander, recently joined Georges Dyer on The Future of Finance podcast, hosted by the Intentional Endowments Network, for a powerful conversation about system-level investing and the evolving responsibilities of today’s diversified investors.
Rick and Georges explore why protecting long-term portfolio returns requires looking beyond individual company performance and focusing on the health of the overall economic, social, and environmental systems upon which markets depend. Their wide-ranging discussion offers an energizing look at the future of markets—and the critical role investors play in shaping them.
Watch on YouTube or listen wherever you stream podcasts.
