We are living in an extraordinary time in which the idea that capital and business can play a strong role in strengthening our society and our environment is coming to life. Ahead of yesterday’s global summit on climate change more than 300 businesses, including Google, McDonald’s and Walmart, came together to urge the Biden administration to nearly double the US’s target for cuts to planet-warming emissions.

After long avoiding direct engagement on sustainability policy, these businesses are seeing the consequences of climate change in their communities and for their businesses, are adjusting their business practices to incorporate climate risk into their thinking and better aligning themselves with all stakeholders. Interestingly, companies are also finding that aligning purpose and profit doesn’t have to be concessionary and that shareholders, along with their stakeholders, are supportive.

In fact, this week, our team reviewed the 1-year returns for all companies that received an “A” from the CDP for their sustainability disclosure and action. We found that all but one of the publicly traded companies on that list had positive gains in the stock market last year. However, last year was definitely not business-as-usual, so we’ll be keeping an eye on how that correlation develops as time goes on (slight spoiler: things were looking pretty good on 5-year returns too).