Page 3 - Riverwater 2020 Sustainability Report
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 CELEBRATING THE POWER OF RESILIENCE
2020 SUSTAINABILITY REPORT
OPENING LETTER
 Dear Friends,
As we reflect on 2020, what most impressed us was resilience:
resilience [ri-zil-yuhns]: the ability of a system or organization to respond to or recover readily from a crisis, disruptive process, etc.
You are likely familiar with the photos from across the globe in early 2020 as the world locked down. The planet was literally healing herself – blue skies and the Air Quality Index (AQI) in Delhi dropping below 20 from the typical 200 and as high as 900 (compared to the World Health Organization’s safe level of 25), the sight of lush plant life, shoals of tiny fish and crabs, and the sandy waterbed in the canals of Venice, and dolphins returning to the Bosporus Strait, Istanbul, Turkey. The resilience of Earth was on display as she showed promise of recovery from the long-term effects of human activity, and hope that if we give her a chance, she will survive and thrive.
Likewise, in response to COVID 19, the people of the world summoned their inventive spirit, capacity to give, compassion, and will to return to normal. Human resilience manifested itself in the discovery, manufacture, and distribution of tests for and vaccinations to prevent COVID 19 in record time, frontline workers putting their lives on the line to care for and provide needed products and services to those in need, individuals uniting to promote racial justice and
fair elections, and creative solutions for staying connected and feeding our passions. All of these actions supported society’s recovery from the pandemic and positioned us for a new future.
Resilience is a trait that allows people and the planet to respond to and recover from a crisis and to thrive. It is the trait that allows businesses to also do so. That is what we witnessed in 2020 as many businesses that had a clear focus on environmental, social, and governance factors – keys to their resilience – were better able to weather the storm that was 2020. Those businesses will be best positioned for success in the long-term.
It is this resilience that will carry us all forward, but only if we collectively care for our planet, its people, and prosperity for all. This is the aim of sustainable investing, and the reason we at Riverwater Partners do the work we do.
Cindy Bohlen, CFA
Chief Mindfulness Officer
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