CCSB vs SCHJ

CCSB—Carbon Collective Short Duration Green Bond ETF

SCHJASchwab 1-5 Year Corporate Bond ETF

In short

CCSB Most short-duration corporate bond ETFs buy whatever the index holds. CCSB screens for bonds whose proceeds are earmarked for climate work, verified by ICMA labeling or the Climate Bonds Standard, and picks them actively.

SCHJ Short-dated corporate credit at index-fund pricing. SCHJ tracks the Bloomberg US 1-5 Year Corporate Bond Index for 0.03% a year, sits at the bottom of its category's fee table, and pays monthly.

Stated mandate

CCSB The Fund seeks maximum total return while preserving capital through prudent investment management.

SCHJ The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the total return of an index measuring the short-term U.S. corporate bond market.

Why people hold it

• CCSB The green label has teeth: at least 80% of assets in bonds self-labeled under ICMA guidelines or certified to the Climate Bonds Standard, not an issuer's general ESG claim.sec.gov
• Two sub-advisers split the work: Artesian Capital Management runs the bond book, Carbon Collective runs the climate screen. Selection is a judgment call, not an index rule.sec.gov
• Sits at the calmer end of the bond aisle by design: weighted-average investment grade credit (BBB- or better) and average duration under five years, which damps rate sensitivity.sec.gov
• Pays income monthly rather than quarterly.

• SCHJ 0.03% a year, against a 0.19% median for investment-grade corporate ETFs. No peer in the cohort charges less.
• Thousands of individual bonds in the basket, so no single issuer's trouble moves the fund much.
• The 1-5 year maturity ceiling means less price swing per move in rates than intermediate corporate funds like VCIT or IGIB, which sit further out the curve.
• Interest is passed through monthly rather than quarterly, and the fund ranks in the top quartile of its investment-grade corporate peer group overall.

Worth knowing

• CCSB Costs 0.50% a year against a 0.15% short investment-grade median, and index peers like VCSH and SCHJ (0.03%) deliver plain short-corporate exposure for pennies.
• Small and thinly traded, so spreads and limit orders matter more here than with the category's giants.
• Launched in 2024, so the track record is short, and an active green mandate can look quite different from a broad short-corporate index.sec.gov

• SCHJ This is company debt, not Treasuries. Downgrades and defaults are part of the deal, and short maturities shrink that risk without erasing it.
• A mid-size fund with moderate trading volume, so spreads can run wider than at the category's giants. Limit orders matter more here.
• Launched in 2019, so its record is shorter than rivals that traded through earlier credit cycles.

Full CCSB profile⁠

Full SCHJ profile⁠