"Citing the 2016 Schroders Global Investors Survey, Waterman told attendees at the ALFI European Asset Management Conference that investors aged 35 and under expected an average of 10.2% per year in returns, compared to a global stock market performance of 3.75% at the time of the survey… Waterman noted a general trend toward ’short-termism’ as…

"Dedicated ESG specialists are rare at institutions signed up to the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), in particular at asset owners, according to analysis carried out by climate and energy think tank E3G… E3G said this meant that over 500 PRI signatories directly employed one or no ESG staff. There are more than 1,700 signatories…

"In AQR Capital Management′s new paper – ’Assessing Risk through Environmental, Social and Governance Exposures’ – the firm said it found a strong positive relationship between companies′ ESG exposures and the statistical risk of their equity." [COMMENTARY] In surveys where investment managers are asked about why they use ESG criteria, they frequently say to manage…

"Presenter Abigail Abrash Walton, Ph.D, will share: Research findings related to mission-aligned investing, leadership, and the decision-making process to divest from fossil fuels by philanthropic organizations with assets under management from $5 million to $1 billion; what factors supported decision makers in moving to mission-aligned investing while simultaneously exercising their fiduciary duty to steward institutional…

"Funds with an ESG mandate tend to be a bit more expensive than other funds, but the differences are not large. There are reasonable explanations for this pattern. Most ESG funds are not very large, so they are not able to benefit from the economies of scale found in funds with huge asset bases; as…

"The world′s largest asset manager is stepping up pressure on companies to address how climate risk will affect its portfolios. In a recent post on its website, BlackRock said it believes climate risk is a “systemic issue” and that corporations should be compelled to develop disclosure standards." [COMMENTARY] Such remarks from the world’s largest asset…

"Over 95% of investors believe their company portfolios contain untapped environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) opportunities, according to a recent survey by London-headquartered global environmental consultancy ERM." [COMMENTARY] The article reviews the results of a survey that show extraordinarily positive views among private equity managers regarding the importance of integrating ESG in investment decisions.ESG…

"Ethisphere′s notion that the financial value and ethics are inexorably tied together has been explained through an analysis of how the stock price of publicly-traded 2017 honorees compare to the S&P 500 over the last two years. The analysis demonstrates a 6.4% premium Ethisphere refers to as an ‘ethics premium.′" [COMMENTARY] I like Ethisphere’s work.…

"Survey data from more than 400 senior investment professionals provides insights into why and how investors use environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information as well as the challenges in using this information. This study also documents what investors believe will be important ESG styles in the future… The primary reason survey respondents consider ESG information…

"One clear leader, as mentioned throughout the study, was Marks and Spencer (M&S). The U.K. retail giant… Ranking slightly behind M&S were H&M and Adidas." [COMMENTARY] This article details important research for everyone particularly interested in the ’S’ of ESG in many of the world’s largest companies. The study cited in the article was compiled…

"Research conducted by ShareAction, a non-profit group in the U.K. that campaigns for responsible investment, ranks the 40 mega-managers who, between them, invest over €21 trillion ($22.4 trillion) … The top five performers (scoring out of a possible 90 points) are: Schroder Investment Management (82), Robeco Group (81), Aviva Investors (80), Amundi (77.5), and Standard…

"10 years after the sub-prime mortgage crisis that triggered a global financial crash, analysts are still largely ignoring long-term financial risks, such as those from climate change, the energy transition and disruptive low carbon technologies… Although most asset owners analyzed in the report, such as pension funds and insurers, have long-term liabilities of 20 years…

"In a new paper that will appear in the April 2017 issue of the Journal of Banking and Finance, a top scholarly journal, the authors study over 2,000 funds. They argue that prior studies on SRI or CSR funds are flawed because those studies simply categorized funds as being either socially-responsible or conventional. This categorization…

"The study concludes that the choice of active or passive investing should be based largely on the needs and preferences of the investor and the cost of providing asset allocation and capital preservation strategies that are not available in passive fund." [COMMENTARY] The predominant trend in recent years has favored passive funds. In fact, active…

"Although the extent to which companies have provided independent assurance over their CSR disclosures has steadily grown, the study also revealed that the majority still did not. Although the pool of CSR assurance providers has widened to become more inclusive, contrary to the expectation that the dominance of the Big 4 audit firms would gradually…

"The Japanese market is finally moving towards an ESG environment, similar to the mature markets of the US and Europe." [COMMENTARY] This is good news for ethical investors globally. Historically,Japanese companies have been reticent to disclose much ESG information. This is now changing with Japan’s new corporate stewardship code and especially Japanese institutional investors such…

"Investors are actively demanding more information about different components of environmental, social and governance investments. As evidence of this, S&P Dow Jones Indices, one of the world′s largest index providers and a division of S&P Global, acquired Trucost Plc, a carbon and environmental data provider, in October. During a GreenBiz 17 program Wednesday, Dmitri Sedov,…

"Nearly 20 global banks and investors have launched a set of criteria for investments to be considered sustainable. The group, which includes Société Générale and Hermes Investment Management and totals around $6.6 trillion (£5.28tn) in assets, outlined the Principles for Positive Impact Finance (PPIF)." [COMMENTARY] Such developments are welcome news. Developments like this make sustainable…

"In a survey of 159 non-profit institutional investors around the globe, 31% say they’re currently engaged in mission-related investing — making investments designed to align with or advance institutional goals or values as well as provide financial returns. Of that group, 44% say they have increased their mission-related allocation over recent years, and 62% expect…

"[UK] Fnancial advisers may be seriously underestimating demand for responsible investment, after research showed wide discrepancies between adviser and consumer attitudes to investing ethically." [COMMENTARY] This is a problem everywhere and explains why the percentage of ethical retail fund assets is only 2-4% of all retail funds. It’s an issue I’ve written about numerous times…