Responsible Investor

Daniel Doctoroff, President and CEO of Bloomberg LP discusses the company's commitment to sustainability and belief in the growing importance of ESG research.

What are the key requirements to leverage sustainable investment and establish governance frameworks from a research, policy and investment standpoint? Can ESG factors make a material difference to the risk / return profile of portfolios and how? And just how should investors go about managing fiduciary duties? MSCI ESG Research, Konrad Adenauer Foundation, RBF / University of St Andrews, UKSIF and Responsible Investor present edited excerpts from the ESG Leadership Forum held in London, 27 April 2012.

Thomas Kuh, Business Director of MSCI ESG Indices, takes a historical perspective on the interest in, and awareness of, investing in ESG-oriented companies over the past several decades. Prior to the 1990s there was a scarcity of information about companies and their ESG engagement, says Kuh; furthermore no one really had a framework for analyzing that information. The interview, courtesy of FS Insight and Holland Financial Centre, was recorded during Responsible Investor's ESG USA 2011 conference, New York, 13 December 2011.

More information: MSCI ESG Indices, FSinsight.

George Serafeim, Assistant Professor of Business Management, Harvard Business School discusses the results of research presented in the white paper "The Impact of a Corporate Culture of Sustainability on Corporate Behavior and Performance", which he co-authored with Professor Robert G. Eccles (Harvard Business School) and Prof. Ioannis Ioannou (London Business School). The interview, courtesy of FS Insight and Holland Financial Centre, was recorded during Responsible Investor's ESG USA 2011 conference, New York, 13 December 2011.

More information: Read the white paper, FSinsight.

Marcel Jeucken, Managing Director Responsible Investment, PGGM, discusses how the fund makes its investment decisions, integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns into its investment strategy. "We are big institutional investors that deploy capital into the economy, and we have to think about how we do that" he says. One crucial element the industry is currently missing: a way to prove the societal, as well as the financial return in socially responsible investments. The interview, courtesy of FS Insight and Holland Financial Centre, was recorded during Responsible Investor's ESG USA 2011 conference, New York, 13 December 2011.

More information: Responsible Investment at PGGM, FSinsight.

Attorney Jay Youngdahl, Visiting Fellow at the Initiative for Responsible Investment (IRI) at Harvard University's Hauser Center, says that conservative lawyers retained by US pension funds are reinforcing the wrong definition of "fiduciary duty" with their clients, remaining focused on short-term profit for beneficiaries. The interview, courtesy of FS Insight and Holland Financial Centre, was recorded during Responsible Investor's ESG USA 2011 conference, New York, 13 December 2011.

More information: Initiative for Responsible Investment, FSinsight.

On January 12, 2012, nearly 500 of the world's investors and most powerful financial players gathered at the United Nations to showcase their actions and discuss promising trends to catalyze the large-scale investment needed to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate potentially catastrophic climate impacts. The speakers featured in the video - supplied courtesy of Ceres - are: Mindy S. Lubber, President, Ceres and Director, INCR; Janet Cowell, North Carolina State Treasurer; Rob McCord, State Treasurer, Pennsylvania Treasury Department; Jack Ehnes, CEO, California State Teachers’ Retirement System; Jane Ambachtsheer, National Partner, Mercer Consulting Services; Bill Green, Senior Managing Director, Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets; Mark Vachon, VP, GE ecomagination; Richard L. Trumka, President and AFL-CIO.

More information: Ceres.

The Boards of organizations can do a lot more to promote ESG, says Erika Karp, Managing Director & Head of Global Sector Research for UBS Investment Bank. That involves asking sometimes uncomfortably explicit questions about the environmental, social and governance-related performance of the organization. "I don't think the business case for ESG has been articulated well, because if you take each of the pieces environmental, social and governance there's a business case to be made wherever you sit in the capital markets ecosystem," says Karp. The interview, courtesy of FS Insight and Holland Financial Centre, was recorded during Responsible Investor's ESG USA 2011 conference, New York, 13 December 2011.

More information: UBS Investment Bank, FSinsight.

Rob Lake, Director of Strategic Development for the United Nations-backed organization Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), has years of experience in socially responsible investing. His SRI experience in Europe and the UK has given him unique insights to share in the US – a market in which, he says, there is still ‘a certain amount of uncertainty and skepticism’ about SRI, as well as misunderstanding about the relationship between fiduciary duty and responsible investing. The interview, courtesy of FS Insight and Holland Financial Centre, was recorded during Responsible Investor's ESG USA 2011 conference, New York, 13 December 2011.

More information: UN PRI, FSinsight.

Roger Urwin, Global Head of Investment Content at Towers Watson, says there are suspicions that the collateral benefits of sustainability may detract from the true purpose of pension funds, which is to make a profit. The benefits of sustainability are not the primary purpose; the primary purpose is to do a better long-term investment job. The interview, courtesy of FS Insight and Holland Financial Centre, was recorded during Responsible Investor's ESG USA 2011 conference, New York, 13 December 2011.

More information: Towers Watson Investment Consulting, FSinsight.

Wolfgang Engshuber, Chair of United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI) summarizes the development of the company over the last six years: “The honeymoon is over.” He goes on to describe the desired direction for UN PRI: “Globally represented, covering the whole investment universe and signatories who have impact on major themes.” The interview, courtesy of FS Insight and Holland Financial Centre, was recorded during Responsible Investor's ESG Europe 2011 conference, Amsterdam, 4-5 October 2011.

More information: UN PRI, FSinsight.

The tipping point of sustainability and responsibility in finance is happening right now, says Noreena Hertz, Professor of Globalization, Sustainability and Finance at Duisenberg School of Finance and Erasmus University. The interview, courtesy of FS Insight and Holland Financial Centre, was recorded during Responsible Investor's ESG Europe 2011 conference, Amsterdam, 4-5 October 2011.

More information: Duisenberg School of Finance, FSinsight.

SAM (Sustainable Asset Management) CEO, Michael Baldinger interview on Sustainability Investing. Joining the debate will be Daniel Wild, Head of Research and Marc-Olivier Buffle, Senior Analyst, to explain SAM´s Corporate Sustainability Assessment and its meaning for investors.

More information: SAM on Sustainability Investing.

Lord Nicholas Stern, IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government at LSE addresses climate change and opportunities for investors, interviewed by Brendan Maton, pensions journalist.

Marcel Jeucken, head of responsible investment at PGGM Investments, talks about ESG integration, RI performance and corporate engagements and exclusions.

More information: Responsible Investment at PGGM.

Responsible-Investor and IPE brought together eight investment professions to discuss the results of the RI Landscape 2008 Asset Owners survey. Participating: Michael Atzwanger, PensPlan; Erik Christiansen, ERAPF; Xavier Desmadryl, HSBC Investments; Christian Gollier, joint holder of the French university chair devoted to responsible investment and sustainable finance; Dr Marcel Jeucken, PGGM; Aled Jones, UK Pension Protection Fund; Liam Kennedy, IPE; Michel Lemonnier representing the French Asset Management Association; Raj Thamotheram, AXA Investment Managers; Hugh Wheelan, Responsible Investor.

More information: Read the survey results and report.

Rob Lake, senior portfolio manager for environmental, social and governance at ABP, the €221bn ($311bn) pension fund for Dutch civil servants, talks clean tech, engagement and cluster bombs.

David Russell, co-head of Responsible Investment at the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), the €31bn ($46bn) second largest UK pension fund, explains how its SRI strategy is not just about risk but also reward.

More information: Read the interview transcript, USS.

One of the world's most prominent corporate governance activists since the 1970s, Bob Monks talks about engagement, hedge fund activists, private equity and why 'discouraged' is not part of his vocabulary.

More information: Read the interview transcript.