On July 27, the president of the United States took aim on Twitter at an American city represented by a political foe.

Reacting to a Fox News segment containing footage of trash and vacant houses in West Baltimore, President Donald Trump said that “no human being would want to live there.” He labeled the predominantly black congressional district “a disgusting, rat and rodent-infested mess,” and said that it was “very dangerous” and “filthy.”

The Republican president also suggested, without providing evidence, that federal funds going to the district represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings were being stolen by local officials.

Critics of the president responded to his Tweets as “racist.”

Catherine Banat, managing director for responsible investing in the U.S. at Royal Bank of Canada Global Asset Management, had a different reaction to the president’s comments—she used them as the inspiration for a July 29 op-ed published in the Baltimore Sun that offered a financial remedy to the urban ills that beset the city.

Entitled “Baltimore Area Needs A Regional Economic Development Strategy,” Banat and her co-author, Patti Chandler, told readers that responsible investing was the constructive solution to turning around American cities such as Baltimore, not maligning them. She talked about linking community development organizations to national lending and addressing discriminatory policies that brought us here.

Earlier that month on July 11, Banat spoke with Financial Advisor in a telephone interview about ESG investing and how it can change both investors' and beneficiaries' lives.

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors are used to measure the sustainability and ethical impact of an investment in a company or business.

Banat expressed her belief that socially conscious investing can change people's hearts and minds through the money they spend and earn.

“People want to make a difference in the world, and they can do it by looking for investment opportunities that have a responsible investing lens,” Banat said. “From our perspective, that means integrating the ESG factor into securities selection and analysis, impact investing and, lastly, socially responsible investing, which is exclusionary.”

Banat said there was no one-size-fits-all choice when it comes to socially responsible investing.

“We at RBC believe it is possible to invest in a responsible way in the broadest sense of the word, across the full asset allocation spectrum,” she said.

But Banat eschews the term “public policy” when it comes to investing in government programs.

“It politicizes the investment,” she said.

Banat asserted that responsible investing does not mean losing out on discretionary return. In fact, she said, over the long term, it adds value to a portfolio.

“We honestly believe you can combine doing well with doing good,” she said. “The idea is to help people take advantage of responsible investing benefits as an economic value.”

Banat said that RBC GAM bases its ESG advice on the 17 sustainable development goals of the United Nations when helping clients find the right investment vehicle for them.

“The starting point is to ask the client what they are seeking to achieve, and to use that as a guide,” she said. “I don’t mean to minimize the importance of the financial return, but you can do so much more beyond that.”

Banat, a New York resident, is empathetic to the challenges her city’s homeless population face daily. However, she said she also knows there is no guarantee that a cash handout will feed the people she wants to help.

“I can give a homeless person a dollar on the street, but I don’t know if that will go to feed the homeless,” she said. “I can also give it to a food kitchen. There are many things I can do with that money. But I can also put that dollar in a homelessness bond issued by the City of Los Angeles, and I will earn money on the investment that’s a fair market price.”

Banat said that investors can also invest in microfinance bonds, which help people sell their goods and services to earn a living. 

When she can impress on clients that doing good is not only personally but financially rewarding, Banat said she knows she has done her job, and done it well.

“My responsibility is to be the ambassador for responsible investing, interfacing with clients,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if they invest one dollar or one million dollars because every dollar invested counts.”

RBC Global Asset Management, headquartered in Toronto, is the asset management division of Royal Bank of Canada. The bank serves over 16 million clients and has 80,000 employees worldwide.