Entrepreneurial Investor’
Over the last decade, the trend towards sustainability in investment management has accelerated significantly, with environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects being taken into consideration in financial evaluation.
Since its launch in 2011, it has tracked this trend and provided investment professionals with vital insights into the developments shaping the sustainability of investing.
ESG investing has been around in a single form or one other for 75 years.but it surely has only reached critical mass within the last decade.
This development is as a result of a confluence of things. The most vital of those is the increased demand from end investors – including institutional asset owners and retail investors – for investment products and solutions that have in mind ESG risks and opportunities. Investors have also expressed a desire for investments which can be aligned with specific environmental or social objectives – so-called non-financial objectives. Governments and regulators have also put pressure on the investment industry to contribute to broader, sustainability-focused policy goals.
Together, these aspects have led to rapid growth in the event of ESG-related financial products. The following diagram from Generation Investment Management illustrates this pattern:
Trends in sustainability finance, 2015–2020
ESG reporting largely reflects these developments. Since its launch in fall 2011, a complete of 220 ESG-related articles have been published, three-quarters of which have been published since 2016. These articles cover all manner of ESG topics, including accounting and disclosure standards, the fiduciary duty debate, the connection between ESG and investment performance, thematic investing, water quality and human rights issues, gender lens investing, and way more.
ESG-focused articles by yr
What follows is a hand-picked choice of essentially the most relevant insights and thought-provoking commentary on all ESG topics from this era. We present crucial sustainability issues from the angle of ESG advocates and critics. The collection provides a captivating insight into the ESG debate and orients readers on the emerging sustainability trend and its implications for the longer term of investing.
ESG Matters: Global Trends and Transitions
The ESG performance paradox
Thematic investing: thematically mistaken?
Nicolas Rabener examines the merits of thematic investments and compares their performance with established benchmarks. He concludes: “ESG and similar themes are forms of investment based on personal preferences. Although they involve costs, they achieve some non-financial objectives.”
The ESG debate is heating up: Four more challenges
ESG investing: Can you’ve the very best of each?
ESG investing: too good to be true?
The concept that corporations that care concerning the environment, take care of their employees and practice good corporate governance achieve higher results might be a mirage, says Nicolas Rabener.
More than carbon: water risks and sustainable investing
Human rights issues and your portfolio: risks and opportunities
Sustainable investing and fiduciary responsibility: conflict or confluence?
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