Northwestern Mutual has always examined its investments in a socially responsible way. Do they create long-term value for the policyowners who entrust their funds to us? Do they meet our standards of social conduct?
In more recent years, however, we are paying attention to socially responsive investments, such as providing housing for low-income residents or developing alternative energy sources. We believe such investing represents sound participation in new and growing markets. To this end, we have formed an internal committee devoted to meeting social responsibility goals in three target areas: real estate, public markets and private equities.
Real Estate
While carefully balancing our policyowners' investment return needs, we have committed approximately $1 billion to multi-family housing and economic development in low- and moderate-income areas (based on federal guidelines). Also, as much as possible, we will focus our investments on environmentally friendly buildings that meet the green standards of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) building rating system. See Going Green above.
Public Markets.
We are also investing in residential mortgage-backed securities in states that yield a significant portion of our revenues. A subset of this market allows us to take advantage of the selected pooling of residential mortgage loans made to low- and moderate-income buyers (based on federal guidelines) as part of lending institutions' compliance with the Community Reinvestment Act.
Private Equities
One recent target in the private equities market that interests us is alternative energy. At year-end 2007, our investments in the alternative energy sector totaled over $400 million, helping finance a portfolio of wind, hydro, geothermal and solar generating facilities. These investment opportunities are good for the environment and appropriately balance risk and return.
There are many more facets to Northwestern Mutual's commitment to corporate citizenship. To learn more about the company's efforts in areas such as our economic impact on the communities we serve, corporate governance, and our work to preserve the environment, read our Corporate Citizenship Report.
To request a copy of the Corporate Citizenship report, e-mail us at webmaster@northwesternmutual.com or write us at Northwestern Mutual, Corporate Relations, Room N04, 720 East Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53202.