Dec 9, 2020
Asia Sustainability Conference: Can sustainable investing help save the world?
Can sustainable investing help save the world?
This was the focus of the Investing for Good panel at SCMP’s recent Asia Sustainability Conference, which explored how investors can help tackle the world’s most urgent social and environmental challenges.
The panel opened with an illuminating — and perhaps surprising — live poll of the audience. After asking the question “Do you invest in sustainable investments?” the poll revealed only about half (57%) of those in attendance answered Yes, with the other 43% saying No.
These results framed the conversation that followed, with panellists exploring issues such as the broad meanings of the term “sustainable investing”, whether or not the ongoing pandemic has created especial urgency in this area, and the overall demand for sustainable investing today. Speakers Philo Alto (Asia Value Advisors), Annie Chen (RS Group), Katy Yung (Sustainable Finance Initiative), and Arjan de Boer (Indosuez Wealth Management) commented thoughtfully on ESGs, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), measurability, impact investment, closing funding gaps, and more.
One major question on everyone’s minds: has COVID-19 been a wakeup call?
Mr. Alto succinctly referred to the pandemic as the “dress rehearsal for looming challenges”, while Ms. Yung emphasized how the pandemic has become a test for whether companies are ESG-resilient or not. Ms Chen highlighted there is a natural sense of urgency that’s being amplified by COVID, especially with how the environment and climate change has a cascading impact on the SDGs. She also commented that sustainable investing or ESG investing is the lowest level of a lens that one can integrate in investments.Speakers observed a notable contrast between companies that have taken ESGs seriously and those that may have been caught off guard, to say nothing of the renewed spotlight on issues like workers’ rights.
Another key matter at hand was the prevailing attitude towards sustainable investing and how to shift investors’ opinions on the subject. Here, Mr. de Boer offered invaluable commentary based on his experience with Indosuez Wealth Management. “Demand for such products is not because clients are asking for it,” he observed, “but also because [we] make it available to them” in the form of investments like green bonds or blue bonds. In other words, relying on client demand alone is not enough.
He also offered a practical solution to measuring sustainable investments for clients. As he reported, Indosuez has applied a unique approach since 2015: they report ESG scores of individual funds, individual securities, bonds, and more directly to clients within their client statements. They also provide investment bankers with an ESG scorecard and train them to discuss ESGs with clients.
De Boer’s conclusion was ultimately cause for optimism: that the general trend toward sustainable investing will reach Asia, “perhaps a little bit later” than elsewhere, but certainly as sustainability and the environment become an increasingly important part of government policy.
