Sustainable investing, sometimes called ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) investing, has been a hotly contested topic for years. And the debate continues with both supporters and naysayers drawing battle lines across the divide. Do ESG initiatives add value to an investment portfolio? Subtract? Neutral, but with the potential to be valuable? In this video, we share our research findings into these questions, applying factual data in an attempt to sort through the debate. We examine some of the challenges with data and ranking systems, describe our conclusions regarding the existence of a return premium and risk exposures and, propose an “E” factor that we believe can be used to identify sustainable companies and managers.
Presenter: Mark Anson, CEO and CIO at Commonfund