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A growing number of institutional investors and asset managers are focusing on integrating a company’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies and practices with traditional financial analytic tools
“We see ESG factors as a vital aspect of the investment decision-making process,” says Cindy Rose, Head of Responsible Investing — Stewardship, Aberdeen Asset Management PLC. “Over the longer term, companies that manage their ESG opportunities and risks, along with their financials, will have a competitive advantage.”
One indicator of that positive differential is the MSCI Emerging Markets ESG Leaders Index, which provides exposure to companies with high ESG performance relative to their sector peers. It has consistently outperformed the MSCI Emerging Markets Index for the past nine years. Through July 2017, the ESG index rose 13.83 percent compared with 11.6 percent for the non-ESG index.
Growth segment
“Sustainable investing is one of the fastest-growing segments in finance right now,” says Michael Baldinger, Head of Sustainable and Impact Investing, Managing Director, UBS Asset Management. Indeed, the sector almost doubled in size from $14 trillion in 2012 to $22 trillion in 2016.
Geographically, about two-thirds of the demand is coming from Europe, where institutional investors typically ask managers to show how they are integrating ESG across their asset classes, says Baldinger. While the U.S. now lags behind, demand is growing three times as fast as Europe, and within a few years it will likely be the largest market.
Baldinger adds that Japan is the fastest-growing market in Asia, although there is a pickup in China as well.
“Many Chinese companies now have ESG policies and disclose their ESG actions,” says Ruby Lv, Marketing Director, SynTao - Sustainability Solutions in Shanghai. “The Hong Kong stock exchange requires listed companies to disclose ESG information. If a company doesn’t do it, it must explain why it chose not to disclose.”
Customized solutions
One of the challenges facing investors considering allocations to the ESG sector is the diversity of terms, definitions and meanings. “There are many funds with ESG or SRI in their titles, but none of them are the same,” Rose says. A carbon-friendly fund, for instance, will have different characteristics than a no-tobacco fund. In addition, fund managers may use different methodologies for assessing the quality of an ESG investment.
Therefore, an institutional investor needs to drill down to see how an ESG or SRI fund’s strategy and underlying assets are aligned with its statement of principles, as well as financial objectives. “One pension fund might be focused primarily on sustainability, while another might prioritize governance issues,” Rose says. “That’s an important driver in the manager selection process.”
Reflecting the wide range of investor interest, understanding and commitment to ESG strategies, asset managers like Aberdeen and UBS offer different types of sustainability solutions. “We integrate material ESG considerations into investment decisions across our four asset classes, taking a risk-based approach when analyzing each investment,” Rose says.
UBS is among the asset managers that offer screens, integrated ESG analysis, and customized solutions to institutional clients. That includes innovative sustainable investing products, such as a climate-aware rules-based equities strategy, and an impact methodology for measuring portfolio impact on ESG.
“By committing to offer sustainable investment solutions that deliver strong returns, larger asset managers can play a key role in providing this value proposition to asset owners, thereby helping sustainable investment to become mainstream,” says Baldinger. — Richard Westlund
ESG Investing Finds a Big Home in ChinaDon’t be surprised if the next driver you hail with a smartphone app in Shanghai pulls up in an electric sedan. Financial support is pouring into Chinese electric car manufacturing, ride-hailing apps, bike-sharing, and other zero-emission ways of getting around thanks to booming investor interest in environmentally sustainable transportation. One result is that drivers-for-hire with electric cars are increasingly common in Shanghai. Transportation is just one of many sectors now supported by ESG (environmental, social, governance) investors, asset managers, government policymakers, and a wide range of manufacturers and service providers in China. Solar power, elder care, water conservation, and eco-friendly, pre-fabricated buildings are also on the ESG agenda. By 2020, the government plans to have increased clean energy’s contribution to the nationwide energy mix to 15 percent and boost pre-fabricated housing to 20 percent of all new residential construction, according to Kevin E. Lee, Executive Vice Chairman at CMIG, China’s first ESG-focused investment group. China’s investment community is clearly on board. ESG and “responsible investing” conferences drew large crowds in recent months in Tianjin, and at a Beijing event sponsored by the Asset Management Association of China. Meanwhile, the government has been promoting credit instruments called “green bonds” as a right-thing-to-do financing channel for environmentally friendly infrastructure projects, consumer product manufacturing, and power generation. Not only are green bonds designed to support the nation’s fight against air, land, and water pollution by, for example, financing solar power stations, but they’re also backing companies whose products and engineering know-how can compete in the global marketplace. A policy circular released in late 2016 by the government’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), on behalf of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, put the onus on lower level governments in cities, counties, and provinces to support bond financing for infrastructure projects that protect nature and improve environmental conditions. Local backing, NDRC said, should come in the form of various types of government support for projects financed with investment bonds. “Local governments should actively guide social capital to participate in green project construction” through “investment subsidies, subsidy guarantees, bond discounts, fund injections and other means,” according to the policy. Building projects pegged as “green” can involve water conservation systems and industrial parks with low-emission power sources. One example of ESG in action is a solar power and poverty alleviation project in western China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Farmers who used to eke out a living in a desert are now raising sheep by taking advantage of pasture grass growing amid solar panels at the Ningxia Solar Farm. A CMIG division that’s building the solar plant also helped farmers finance sheep-raising businesses. A recent report by Deloitte predicted Chinese government preferential policies will continue supporting green corporate bonds and similar ESG investment initiatives for the long term. Beijing wants “all types of financial institutions, securities investment funds and other investment products, the Social Security Fund, and corporate pension and social funds” to invest in “green companies, enterprises and other institutional investment bonds,” the report said. |