We fund and grant innovative projects

We believe philanthropy has a crucial role to play in solidifying and bringing to scale the growing fields of responsible investing, social finance and impact investing. This is why we fund initiatives that are building a more just investment market and a more effective impact investment field.

These can include:

• initiatives that aim to educate investors, policymakers and foundations about the principles of sustainable finance, impact measurement and the value of catalytic capital;
• networks that allows industry collaborations to share lessons, best practices and influence markets and policymakers;
• innovative financial models and new financial instruments;
• incubators for promising initiatives that are not yet investment-ready.

$225,000

To create the Canada Climate Law Initiative (based at UBC) – a Knowledge Mobilization and Policy Hub that mobilizes directors and fiduciaries on climate governance, fiduciary obligation and disclosure of climate-related financial risk.

$200,000

To protect pensions and the climate by bringing together beneficiaries and pension funds to engage on the climate crisis.

$200,000 | Municipal Impact Investment Fund

To develop a new blended financial model with the cities of Barrie and Victoria. The MIIF will aim to attract private capital to invest in energy efficiency projects to decarbonize buildings in medium-size municipalities with the ultimate goal of reducing emissions through aggregated investment-ready projects.

$155,000

To advance conservation finance by mobilizing investors, financial institutions and leaders and by exploring specific mechanisms to support indigenous stewardship.

$150,000

To bring innovative climate smart / clean tech to scale by launching "Mission from MaRS: Climate Action", a technology adoption program that will identify Canadian cleantech ventures that can be rapidly adopted into large supply chains.

$150,000

To create the Sustainability Ecosystem at Concordia University – a Hub which provides sustainability (ESG) education to advance sustainable business practices, and the Hub which operates as secretariat for the Canadian Sustainability Ecosystem university network.

$120,000

To create a first-of-its-kind responsible investing dashboard for Canadian pension funds, providing a navigational tool that can help pension funds raise their environmental and equity ambitions to meet the opportunities of the future. This is a project of The Natural Step Canada and Smart Prosperity Institute in partnership with Corporate Knights.

$50,000

To advance responsible investing and sustainable finance in Canada by expanding the CERES initiative to Canada. CERES seeks the transition to a low-carbon economy in order to achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

$50,000

To accelerate Canadian companies’ climate ambition and commitments to drive to net zero by launching a coordinated campaign by the Canadian financial sector. This is the Canadian equivalent of Climate Action 100+

$30,000

To launch a collaborative University Climate-Aligned Portfolio program for university endowments and pension plans that leverages their power as institutional investors to meaningfully address climate change-related risks.

We utilize PRIs as a tool in our impact-investment toolbox

Impact Investing is a strategy that the Trottier Family Foundation utilizes to more effectively integrate our financial assets with our goal of having an impact on fighting climate change.

Program-related investments (PRIs) are investments made to charities as well as for-profit enterprises to help fuel the growth of innovative organizations that advance social, economic, and environmental challenges. With those investments, we seek high-impact and high-need opportunities that are overlooked by the conventional market. PRIs are impact-driven and have a tolerance for below-market returns.

$1M Green Bond

The Trottier Foundation’s first impact investment was in CoPower, a private green bond that invested in clean energy, energy efficiency and other renewable projects. We exited in late 2021 with an IRR of 17% and reduction of over 800 tons of GHGs or the equivalent of taking 200 cars off the road.

$500,000 Impact Bond

The Deetken Ilu Women’s Empowerment Fund is an impact bond that aims to advance gender equality in Latin America and the Caribbean and promote renewable energy. Deetken is committed to supporting women’s empowerment across all business activities, renewable energy, affordable housing and sustainable enterprise.

$500,000 Green Bond

RE Royalties Green bonds are used to finance investments made in renewable energy generation, energy efficiency management and sustainable infrastructure.

$500,000 investment in CDOC

Through a Renewable Energy Community-Driven Outcomes Contract (CDOD), Aki Energy, an Indigenous owned social enterprise, and Raven Capital, will install 125 geothermal units in four first nations communities in Manitoba.

$300,000 Community Bond

Concessional type investment to support Earth Day’s EcoCharge project – a network of 100 fast-charging stations. Deployed in Quebec and New Brunswick at 50 IGA grocery sites.

We align our investments with our mission through MRIs

Mission-related investments (MRIs) are investments made with the intent of achieving our climate-related objectives. While our goal is to drive demonstrable progress toward climate change mitigation, we expect MRIs to achieve market-rate financial returns and decarbonization. Our primary investment themes are:

• Greenhouse gas emissions mitigation investments (clean technology funds or climatetech, alternative technology, public or private equity green bonds, venture capital, etc.)
• Renewable and clean energy (solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, hydro and other renewables)
• Mobility (clean and accessible transportation systems)
• Built environment (energy efficiency, green building technology, green real estate, etc.)
• Industry and carbon (decarbonizing cement or steel, direct air capture, sustainable aviation, etc.)
• Sustainable land use (sustainable forestry, conservation finance)
• Sustainable freshwater management (water conservation, clean water technology)
• Sustainable food systems (sustainable agriculture and farmland, regenerative, food-related real assets)

$1M Real Estate Fund

One Planet Living Real Estate Fund is a Canadian closed-end, mixed-use real estate development impact fund. The Fund develops low carbon buildings in the Toronto and Ottawa area using the One Planet Living framework.

$1M Cleantech Fund 

Cycle Capital’s Fund IV is a private equity clean tech fund that finances clean tech entrepreneurs and invests in the commercialization stage of clean technology ventures in Canada and the USA.

$1M Housing Fund

New Market Funds Rental Housing Fund II invests in retrofit multi-family affordable housing throughout Canada. Fund II also retrofits buildings to reduce emissions by 20% and partners with existing non-profit and cooperative operators.

$500,000 climate tech fund

Trottier Foundation is invested in Active Impact Investments Fund II which invests in early-stage climate tech ventures that are capable of achieving venture scale and profitability while solving the most urgent environmental issues (clean energy, transportation, infrastructure, food, circular economy).

$500,000 Impact Fund

Amplify Capital is the evolution of the MaRS Catalyst Fund, investing in mission-driven, double-bottom-line disruptors in health, education and clean tech.

We use our assets to catalyze impact

ESG integration is essentially "do no harm". We choose asset managers who explicitly embed ESG issues into traditional financial analysis. ESG integration means that the portfolio manager combines environmental, social and governance data together with traditional financial metrics when assessing a company’s value. For all our asset classes, we use negative screens, we measure our total carbon footprint and we have an active ownership strategy.

a) DIVESTMENT

Since 2015, we have only hired investment managers that adopt and apply negative screening - this means excluding companies from our portfolio that involve fossil fuel companies (coal, oil and gas).

b) TOTAL CARBON FOOTPRINT

We also attempt to calculate the carbon intensity of our portfolio (tCo2 / $1M). In other words, we strive to measure our portfolio's exposure to carbon emissions and climate risk and try to best calculate our footprint, despite inconsistencies in methodology. In 2019, the Foundation's total carbon footprint was estimated to be approximately 65% lower in emissions than MSCI’s benchmarks. We remain committed to improve these numbers.

c) PROXY VOTING AND SHAREHOLDER ENGAGEMENT

In 2020, we committed to better understand how our investment managers were exercising the Foundation’s shareholder votes to ensure they are cast consistently with our principles, investment policy and mission. We also actively participate in SHARE’s shareholder engagement program to help improve environmental, social and governance practices of specific companies that we own shares in. We anticipate becoming more active shareholders in the years to come.

Our asset managers