Methodology
Sustainable investing is often limited to what it avoids. Renew is built differently. Every investment outside the core is built around the regenerative outcomes it produces — verified by third parties, not by marketing teams, and not by us.
The rule
Every regenerative investment must report at least one outcome that a third party can document — a certification record, a registry, a regulatory filing, a metered reading, an audited count. Marketing claims don't qualify. Modeled estimates don't qualify. If the outcome can't survive this test, the investment doesn't enter your portfolio, however good the story is.
Why this matters to you: it means your annual review contains figures you can independently check. It also means we sometimes pass on investments we admire. That's the cost of the standard, and we think it's worth paying.
The framework
Kate Raworth's doughnut economics framework describes a regenerative and just middle where all of life can thrive — between the social foundation humanity requires and the ecological ceiling we can't overshoot. This is our measurement grid. Investments are mapped to the dimensions they verifiably move, with the metric and its source named. Nothing is claimed twice, and nothing is claimed on faith.
| Dimension | What we count | Where the number comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Ecological ceiling | ||
| Land regeneration | Acres in certified organic or regenerative transition | Certifier records |
| Forests | Acres under climate-smart management | FSC certification |
| Climate | Tons CO₂e sequestered or avoided | Carbon registries; metered generation |
| Energy | Clean kWh generated | Utility meter data |
| Soil health | Change in soil organic matter | Field sampling results |
| Social foundation | ||
| Worker wealth | Employee-owners created; equity value at transition | ESOP filings |
| Housing | Affordable units financed or preserved | Sponsor impact audits |
| Access to capital | Loans to women- and BIPOC-owned businesses | CDFI regulatory reporting |
| Homeownership | First-time and minority buyer loans funded | Lender reporting |
| Land tenure | Farmer-years of secure tenure provided | Lease records |
| Food | Acres producing certified organic food | Certifier records |
Diligence
Before impact is discussed at all, the investment has to make sense on its own merits — manager track record, underwriting discipline, fee load, realistic return path. An investment that fails here is not rescued by a good mission.
At least one impact outcome verified by a third-party source. We ask sponsors for the underlying documentation, not the marketing deck.
Would this have happened without the capital? Buying shares of an existing company on an exchange usually changes nothing. Financing a farm's organic transition does.
How does the deal treat the people inside it? Employee ownership, farmer-favorable lease terms, patient repayment schedules — structure often does more good than sector.
We size every position to account for the household's liquidity needs. Illiquid investments are acceptable when chosen deliberately together.
No single regenerative investment exceeds a set share of total household net worth, regardless of conviction. The limit is written down before the investment is made.