What is Sustainable Investing?

We use the term "Sustainable Investing" as an umbrella term for all investment techniques that integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria into financial research and investment processes. Our team works with both institutional investors' seeking to maximize long-term returns by including ESG criteria in their portfolio analysis, as well as investors who aim to deliver social and environmental returns.

Today, the trend of socially responsible investment as a niche product for good-hearted retail investors is giving way to the inclusion of ESG criteria by hard-headed institutional investors concerned with management quality and long-term returns. In emerging markets, the financial crises of the late-1990s highlighted the perils of short-term investment or "hot money". This also strengthened the business case for including ESG factors in investment analysis in less developed markets where it can serve as a proxy for management effectiveness which is critical to the confidence and resilience of institutional capital.