A lot of what has happened as a result of Covid is an acceleration of trends that were in place. We had a one-day-a-week work-from-home policy for a year and a half or so. New York City commutes are just awful. We are the kind of firm that has enough of a reputation that when somebody wants an experienced person in the field, they’ll definitely try and poach Domini employees. We wanted to have policies in place that are appealing, and maybe not available everywhere, to keep our employees. When Covid came, it was very easy to just make it five days a week instead of one, because we had the technology.

SK: I’m sure like many other socially responsible investment companies, you’ve invested in health-care companies. Can you share some of the names of companies in your funds?

AD: Yes. We launched a new fund, Sustainable Solutions, in March—during Covid—but we had planned the fund for a year and a half or two years before.

One of the problems we wanted to see solved is that for many of us, health care is difficult to access. We found Teledoc and bought it; it’s a company offering online access to doctors. The company had a big challenge, though. Insurance didn’t want to reimburse for online visits. Then Covid-19 came along and changed all that. Another company we invested in was BioTelemetry. They have a device you wear that monitors your heart, providing your doctor with a continuous feed. The technology replaces the old systems, all of which required person-to-person contact. Covid-19 made BioTelemetry’s technology much more desirable. These are two cases where the pandemic acted as an accelerant for companies offering solutions.

SK: Now many of the big, traditional asset managers are getting into environmental, social, and governance investing. What does that mean for your company?

AD: Actually, I’m very encouraged by it all. You can’t be an advocate and not enjoy that growth is happening. I can tell you some of those firms have stolen some of my best people, so I know they’re getting excellent input from their new hires. And those firms may have started out as “Oh, Lord, we’ve got to do this because this big client wants it.” But as [their work] moves through time, it becomes more and more real.

Some of those firms have mutual funds, and they get headlines that say, “In spite of the fact that they call themselves green, they haven’t voted to support any green shareholder resolutions.” Most of them don’t like that headline, so next time they’ll say, “We’re going to have a policy that protects us [from] that headline.” It’s a step on the path. Not everybody will be great on it. I think we’re always going to be the source of intellectual capital.

SK: Have you been approached by a larger company?

AD: Yes, but I’m in a good position. I am not a person who’s motivated by making a billion dollars. I’m motivated by changing the world and have a successful business as a side effect of that. Obviously, people are mortal, but I would like for the firm to be immortal and take that provocateur role.

SK: How do you describe a provocateur role?