1st August 2017
sriServices and Fund EcoMarket news
One of the joys of updating technology is that it can slow things down - but as there is so much happening in the sustainable, responsible and ethical investment world at the moment, I figure this newsletter is better late than never!
But before I start - and fresh off the press - readers of this newsletter are the first to have the opportunity to sign up to our annual Good Money Week event: 'Screened, Themed and Engaged 2017'.
Date - Thursday, 19 October
Time - 1.45 - 8pm
Venue - Museum of London, London Wall, London, EC2Y 5HN
Format - Presentations, fund manager led round table meetings and a panel discussion - followed by a drinks reception.
Further information and a SIGNUP FORM are available here.
This is a 'financial services professionals only' event. Given the format, if we are oversubscribed as we were last year, we will prioritise intermediaries if the numbers looks tight. So please sign up, or pass this on to your colleagues, ASAP if you are keen.
As ever you can contact me on Julia@sriServices if you have any feedback or questions.
If you are not already signed up to this newsletter you can do so via this link .
For more regular SRI related updates (and the odd opinionated outburst) you can follow me on Twitter @JuliaDreblow.
Climate Risk and Financial Stability
In June, the Financial Stability Board's 'Taskforce on Climate Related Financial Disclosure' (launched during COP21, the Paris Climate talks) published a report setting out how companies should disclose climate risk to investors - in the interest of financial stability.
The FSB is chaired by Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney. The TCFD is chaired by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. You can find the TCFD final report here. |
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Actuarial profession responds to climate risk
In response to COP21, the recent TCFD report and a growing recognition of the need to manage climate risk, the Institute of Actuaries has issued a Climate Risk Alert to all members. This alert is accompanied by a detailed report that sets out related environmental and social risks. These documents focus on the implications of climate change for longer term investors - particularly pension schemes. |
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Pensions and SRI.
The Law Commission published a welcome report on Pensions and Social Investment which if adopted has the potential to herald a shift towards SRI and impact investment by pension schemes. This follows significant ESG related changes to DB pension schemes announced by The Pensions Regulator in March of this year. |
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EU Sustainable Finance Consultation.
The EU has this month published its interim 'High Level Expert Group' (HLEG) report on Sustainable Finance. This ambitious and significant report covers issues ranging from financing greener infrastructure to the labelling of SRI funds. The final report is expected by the end of this year with implementation beginning in January. Feedback is requested by 20 September. |
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SwissRe shifts to ESG indices
In perhaps a sign of things to come SwissRe has switched all its investments to be managed in line with ESG (not ethical!) indices. |
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NRG - swimming against the tide
To illustrate that we remain in something of a transitional period, with some investors encouraging companies to swim against the tide for short term gain, here is link to an insightful article in GreenBiz. Read about NRG's switch from green to brown here. |
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sriServices - Fund EcoMarket Investment Week award finalist
Fund EcoMarket, our free to use fund research hub is a Finalist in the 2017 Investment Week ESG/SRI Research Provider Awards. Results will be announced in October. |
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Fund EcoMarket update
Here is a brief overview of our fund manager sponsored SRI fund information hub Fund EcoMarket. The 361 listings on this tool (across various product areas) are segmented or 'labelled' into SRI Styles as follows:
- 76 - Sustainability Themed
- 49 - Environmentally Themed
- 7 - Socially Themed
- 89 - Ethically Balanced
- 91 - Negative Ethical
- 5 - Faith Based
- 15 - Responsible Ownership
- 8 - ESG Integration
- (21 - unclassified)
SRI Styles work alongside our factfind questionnaire - helping advisers to initiate client conversations on this topic.
The 'SRI Policies' and 'SRI Features' filter options offer many additional ways in which individual investors' opinions can be taken into account more precisely, if required.
Fund EcoMarket continues to develop apace thanks to support from LionTrust, Rathbones, Sarasin & Partner, Triodos, Unicorn and Pictet. Recent improvements include adding support text, help areas and a blog.
As a free to use tool Fund EcoMarket is our way of helping financial advisers (and others) to respond to issues such as those mentioned above.
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Ethical/ESG
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