Aegon Asset Management has made two new hires to strengthen its now 14-strong global responsible investment team.
An overwhelming majority (91 per cent) of investors in alternatives believe that the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will help the financial industry address pressing environmental and social issues.
By Kevin Smith (pictured), Estera – The introduction of the Guernsey Green Fund (‘GGF’) has given both investors and managers a transparent product through which investments into green initiatives can be made. Most significantly, it effectively creates a ‘kitemark’, assuring investors that specific green criteria have been met and that their investments are having the desired, positive environmental impact.
Puro – the world’s first marketplace to kick-start CO2 removal from the atmosphere – has been launched as an internal startup at clean energy provider Fortum.
One aspect of change that has started influence the way alternative fund managers think about their strategies is the increased focus on sustainable investing among institutional allocators. ESG considerations are becoming part of the manager selection process, as a way to determine what ESP principals are being applied, how this affects the investment process, and what tools, if any, can be used to benchmark performance.
Style Analytics, a provider of factor-based analysis software for investment professionals, has entered into a distribution agreement with Sustainalytics, a specialist in ESG research, ratings and analysis, to serve the rapidly growing demand to integrate ESG considerations into the investment process.
Refinitiv has appointed Leon Saunders Calvert as Head of Sustainable Investing & Fund Ratings, a newly created role that brings together Refinitiv’s ESG Sustainable Investing and Lipper Fund Ratings businesses to increase focus on unearthing links between sustainable business strategies and financial performance.
ESG investment considerations have risen to prominence in recent years as institutional investors think more carefully about the impact their investments have on the world, and on society at large. It is an issue that all investment managers – traditional and alternative – can ill afford to dismiss.
Liontrust, the specialist fund management group, has expanded its Sustainable Advisory Committee through the appointment of Valborg Lie.
Spouting Rock Asset Management has appointed Pamela Jacobs as its first Chief Sustainability Officer. In this new role, she’ll work with the firm’s management and investment teams to assess the Impact and ESG landscape and determine the best way to integrate these into the firm’s investment strategy, culture and philosophy.