ESG and Ethical Investing - Articles & White Papers
Articles and white papers on ESG and socially responsible investing. The most popular ESG research in this section provides practical advice for tangible implementation of ESG policy, for instance, exploring a framework to integrate ESG factors into portfolio construction, and how to integrate ESG into private equity. ESG surveys have been well received, and the list below includes a survey of European ESG funds as well as a report which examines how institutional investors incorporate ESG considerations when investing in alternatives. A commonly debated issue is the question of how ESG impacts investment returns. Can socially responsible investing deliver competitive performance, or does it hurt investment outcomes? This topic is well covered in this area of our library. Other research in this section includes papers on corporate governance policy, shareholder activism and the rise of activist funds. With environmental risks and climate change an increasing concern for investors, there are a growing number of papers on fossil fuel divestment. Furthermore, increasing attention is being given to how funds can actually use their investments to make a positive change for good, and papers on impact investing have proved popular, particularly in relation to endowments. This section also includes papers on faith-based investing such as Islamic finance.
This 71-page paper by Deutsche Asset Management examines how activity in sustainable investing is gathering momentum. It looks into key trends such as asset owner demands, fiduciary duty, regulatory requirements, and climate change.
The adoption of ESG principles is picking up steam and moving into the mainstream, reflecting a view that ESG insights and perspectives can address multiple objectives. In this survey SSGA finds that, in addition to targeting positive social or environmental impacts, ESG criteria are increasingly seen as capable of improving investment returns. This 24 page document examines the ...
There is a growing trend, particularly amongst larger asset owners, to consider ESG factors within core investment processes. The level of sophistication varies between markets and institutions, but the momentum is clear. This seven-page study explores some of the perceived obstacles to applying an ESG framework to the stock selection process, and sets out practical ways of ...
Various studies report that investing in “sin stocks”, that is firms which make money from human vice, such as alcohol, tobacco, gambling and weapons, has historically delivered significantly positive abnormal returns. This finding has inspired the hypothesis that sin stocks are being shunned to such an extent that they end up being systematically underpriced, enabling ...
Climate change poses one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century. Still, fixed income markets lag in their response; the ‘green’ bond market remains modest, with some environmentally conscious investors deterred by its lack of standardisation and uncompetitive returns. However, we think there is a way to address these investor concerns by targeting carbon ...
The consideration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues in investing has grown in importance and developed in its implementation in recent years. Different terms, often used interchangeably, are used to express the various approaches: these include responsible investing (the term preferred at Invesco) and sustainable investing.
This study was commissioned by Future Fund, the Australian SWF. It aims compare best practices across leading asset owner funds with reference to benchmarks. The authors aim to reveal opportunities for idea sharing, development, and challenge between these funds. Eight specific focus areas emerge from the study: Culture, Diversity and EVP; Effective Decision Making; Long-Horizon ...
Regarding the contribution of socially responsible (SR) screening to mutual fund performance, we propose a new decomposition of the variability of SR mutual fund returns that isolates the contribution of SR screening, allowing it to be compared with other, traditional sources of performance. Our results, based on a sample of SR equity mutual funds, show that SR screening does ...
ESG and related types of investing are slowly but surely coming into the mainstream. Socially responsible investing (SRI), which involves screening out investments based on certain criteria, has been available for decades but investors are increasingly moving to a more nuanced approach of integrating qualitative ESG considerations into investment analysis.
Much of the investment industry has begun incorporating carbon emissions data into investment decisions, but the way forward is complex and requires analysis that goes beyond standard carbon emissions data. Investors who focus on simple solutions such as divestment or footprinting without considering these other factors may end up divesting shares of innovative companies and ...
There is a recommendation from the Financial Stability Board that asset managers now report on the carbon exposure in their portfolios to manage climate-related risks. This report assesses the carbon risks and opportunities of major global equity indices. A range of metrics reveals the carbon footprint of each index, alongside exposure to fossil fuels, stranded assets, and ...
This year may usher in a fundamental rethink for investors. Underlying all the major trends we identified for 2017 is a strategic decision point – do we change the way we think about investing, or is this business as usual in a new order?
Re-imagine getting “active”, beyond traditional notions of alpha. IQ explores ideas to add value across multiple dimensions of the investment lifecycle and how deeper strategic partnerships are helping to address today’s complex investment challenges.
Interest in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors is expanding at a rapid pace among institutional and retail investors around the world. In this paper, we provide an overview of the sustainable investment landscape, including investor adoption and implementation trends, as well as important sustainable investment themes from an industry ...
This detailed paper provides insights into how NBIM operates in the area of responsible investing. It explains the purposes behind NBIM's responsible investing philosophy and the main pillars of its process. The paper covers the standards set, the research undertaken, and the approach taken to company engagement and voting. Finally, it describes NBIM's ...
The PLSA's annual stewardship survey examines how UK pension funds are exercising their responsibility to be good stewards of many billions of pounds of funds under management. The survey considers stewardship principles, shareholder engagement and voting, class actions, asset manager selection and review, fund manager capacity and a variety of other topics within the umbrella ...
What if we told you how to avoid stocks that go bankrupt? We think you would listen.
Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) factors are too critical to ignore, in our view. In our earlier report ESG: good companies can make good stocks, we found that ESG-based investing would have offered long-term equity investors substantial benefits in mitigating price risk, earnings ...
A lively debate has emerged regarding what is the best way to combine several factors into a single index. Roughly speaking, there are two camps in the debate: those who advocate a top-down “mixed” composite of individual factors and those who advocate a bottom-up “integrated” approach which results in an ...
This important guide explains where Resource and Environment (R&E) issues are relevant to pension schemes and the work of pensions actuaries. It is an attempt at helping pensions actuaries to assist their clients in navigating the uncertainties associates with R&E issues, in collaboration with covenant and investment advisers.
Investors worldwide embrace the idea of sustainability investing, but it is often unclear how sustainable investment funds really are. We believe in a seven-step approach to integrate sustainability in our investment process for equities, credits and private equity.
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Robeco uses a seven step process for integrating sustainability
