Socially Responsible Investment Program

Commitment to the Communities We Serve

The sponsoring congregations of CHRISTUS Health have a long history and tradition of commitment to the community, social, economic, and environmental justice. To be faithful to and honor this tradition, the Socially Responsible Investment Program (SRI) provides guidance for the fiduciary and stewardship responsibilities of CHRISTUS Health. This guidance is provided within the context of the social teachings of the Catholic Church and its commitment to advocate for systemic changes to improve the health and well being of individuals and communities.

Through the use of tools such as shareholder advocacy, social screens, and proxy voting, the CHRISTUS Health SRI Program seeks to:

  • Promote social, economic, and environmental justice, world peace and political freedom
  • Use its resources to promote health and human dignity
  • Give special attention to the needs of persons who are poor and underserved

Frequently Asked Questions

What is shareholder advocacy? 

CHRISTUS Health actively participates in the use of its ownership position of publicly traded companies, to encourage the management of these companies to adopt policies that promote social and economic justice, environmental justice, world peace, and political freedom.

By filing or co-filing resolutions and by engaging in direct dialogue with corporate management, CHRISTUS Health is able to educate corporations on a number of topics, especially in its core field of healthcare.

What are social screens? 
CHRISTUS believes it is not appropriate to use its financial resources to invest in companies that participate in producing products that diminish the health of the individual or community. Thus CHRISTUS avoids the purchase of investments in domestic and international equities, and fixed income securities of certain companies whose products, services or actions are deemed contrary to CHRISTUS Health's mission or values.
What is proxy voting? 
Proxies are voted for all CHRISTUS portfolios using the guidelines developed by a coalition of Catholic Investors. Proxy voting covers both internal governance concerns and social concerns such as equality and diversity in the workplace, human rights and global corporate accountability, access to credit and flow of capital, and other issues. Proxy voting provides the ability for CHRISTUS Health to influence a company by voting on proposed corporate actions.
Who shares our common beliefs? 

For about four decades, the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) has been a leader of the corporate social responsibility movement. ICCR's membership is an association of 275 faith-based institutional investors, including national denominations, religious communities, pension funds, foundations, healthcare corporations, economic development funds, asset management companies, colleges, and unions. ICCR and its members press companies to be socially and environmentally responsible. Each year ICCR-member religious institutional investors sponsor over 200 shareholder dialogues and resolutions on major social and environmental issues.

For more information about the CHRISTUS Socially Responsible Investment Program email: sri@christushealth.org.