Sustainable Investment

Even two years ago, the environmental, social and governance (ESG) agenda was really only of interest to niche investors and rarely mentioned within organisations as they developed their sustainability strategies.

Today, the landscape has changed completely as investors demand to know what the companies they’re investing in are doing on climate, social inclusion, biodiversity loss and a host of other issues that might materially impact the success of the company.

For those companies who might have thought sustainability was a nice bolt-on, they are now finding it’s central to how they’re viewed and, more crucially to senior management, whether the company is a good investment. As reporting standards and sustainability frameworks become more standardised, we expect to see better quality data enhance the understanding of the drivers of risk and value in companies’ business models.

We are at a point of inflection where ESG could be the biggest lever yet to encourage companies to develop ambitious sustainability strategies that deliver real, and significant, value to the organisation and make positive impact at scale to the world and the communities in which they operate.