Investment advisor Frank Arnold has such a long-standing passion for protecting and sustaining the environment that it doesn’t matter whether he’s at work in his business suit or at play in sweats and sneakers — there’s little difference in the cut and colour of his cloth. From his earliest days as a curious kid wandering through the woods behind his family’s Nanaimo, B.C., home, Arnold’s commitment to the environment has remained steadfastly strong.

The 36-year-old is now head of Victoria-based Pinch Group, a member firm of Raymond James Ltd. Pinch Group specializes in showing clients how socially responsible investing can be both profitable and helpful to the environment. But Arnold and his colleagues also put the environment first in their personal lives. Several members of the office staff, for example, either cycle, use public transit or carpool to and from the Pinch Group office’s in downtown Victoria.

“I think it’s safe to say that I wouldn’t have tilted our business so much in an environmental direction if I didn’t have passion for the natural world myself,” Arnold says. “It bears repeating that the current level of species extinction around the world has not been seen since the demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

“At the current pace, approximately half of all species will have been wiped out in the next 50 years; if that happens, I’m convinced future generations will not forgive us,” he adds. “But it doesn’t have to be that way, and I intend to do whatever I can to help save endangered species and their habitats.”

Arnold still has clear memories of the early experiences that shaped his current thinking. “When I was a kid, we lived in a semi-rural area of Nanaimo,” he says. “I spent a lot of my time outdoors exploring behind our backyard, where we had a forest with a creek running through it. As it turned out, this was a great environmental classroom for me.”

Arnold left his native Nanaimo in 1993 to attend the University of Victoria. It was on that picturesque campus during his third year that the mathematically-focused student made a life-altering discovery. He was doing a math co-op in the forestry sector on statistical analysis of tree growth regeneration, which took him into the vast tracts of logged forests in remote areas of Vancouver Island, areas that are typically hidden from the view of both residents and visitors. There, for the first time, Arnold saw the massive extent and scope of commercial forestry clearcuts.

“That experience really opened my eyes,” Arnold recalls. “I returned to campus, took a few environmental courses, then decided to make this my other major.”

Arnold, who had already decided to become a financial advisor during university, graduated with a bachelor of science degree with majors in both mathematics and environmental studies.

“I entered the investment industry right after graduation, in December 1997,” he says. “By then, my specific interest was to work with clients interested in socially responsible investing.”

Then, about seven years ago, Arnold linked up with Brian Pinch, a now retired investment planner who not only founded Pinch Group but was one of the early practitioners of SRI in the Greater Victoria Area.

“We had very similar views on investing and on the environment,” Arnold says, “and I knew I could learn a lot from Brian, who is definitely a pioneer in SRI.”

That association led Arnold to buying Pinch’s book of business several years ago, essentially doubling Arnold’s client base. Today, the firm manages more than $100 million in assets; most are in the SRI sector. Arnold is the firm’s senior advisor.

Pinch Group also donates its time to a number of environmental charities by handling donations of stock. It also manages several long-term endowment funds without compensation. “We don’t charge for these services, even though they take up a fair amount of staff time,” Arnold says. “But it’s something I get a lot of fulfilment from.”

And Pinch Group sometimes matches client donations to certain environmental groups, including the Sierra Club of Canada, on specific projects, such as preserving a wilderness area. Pinch Group also shows environmental films to clients and directs most of its advertising dollars to environmental charities and publications such as the Sierra Club, Watershed Sentinel, the Victoria Natural History Society and others.

@page_break@At home in Victoria with his wife, Tammy, and their two children — a four-year-old boy and two-year-old girl — the Arnolds are solid vegetarians who support local, organic food production. The couple also perform a lot of volunteer work in the environmental sector, ranging from stuffing envelopes to lending a hand with fundraising efforts.

“My wife and I have been vegetarians for more than 15 years now,” Arnold says. “Studies have shown that a vegetarian driving a Hummer has a smaller carbon footprint than an omnivore who drives a [Toyota] Prius.

“Furthermore, we chose to live close to town and close enough to our local grocery stores and other shopping so that we can walk,” he says. “We buy as many green products as we can, like cloth diapers for our kids and use all-natural cleaners around the house. We also try to incorporate vacations into my work travel to reduce the amount of flying we do.”

But as impressive as Arnold’s commitment to the environment has been up to now, perhaps the best is yet to come. He says he is likely to have the book of business he purchased from Pinch paid off in about a year, which will free up substantial cash flow and allow him to set up a non-profit foundation that will financially support environmental charities and environmental education for children.

“Most environmental charities typically rely a lot on government grants for their funding,” Arnold says. “But those grants are now drying up, so the charities have to start looking for other funding sources.’”

He says he’s especially interested in helping kids learn about the environment: “If you can get kids outdoors to experience Nature, they’ll quickly get it when it comes to protecting the environment. I hope to get some of our clients involved in it as well, and I certainly plan to have my own children involved when they’re older.”

Regardless of today’s environmental challenges at home and abroad, Arnold remains optimistic that a continued decline in species and/or natural habitats can be stopped or slowed down — even in southwestern British Columbia. He’s hopeful that local endangered species, such as the killer whale and the disappearing sockeye salmon, will survive.

“[Extinction is] not inevitable, not by a long shot. It’s definitely something we can slow down,” Arnold says. “Already there have been some great success stories.” IE