Image by Andrew Nye, Manchester

The Two Myths and Three Approaches of Responsible Investing

Exploring sustainability, ESG and responsible investing approaches for your investment portfolio.

There’s two common myths about sustainability and responsible investing. Although its one of the most talked about topics at banks and dinner tables most of us fall into one of these two camps:

1. Responsible investing creates alpha (above average returns)
2. Responsible investing comes at the cost of returns

The reality is, neither of these statements is right or wrong. Which is precisely why we need to delve into the true nature of responsible investing and investment returns.

Now, inflation may be the hot topic driving investors, markets and central banks at the moment, but it’s sustainability that has been the undercurrent pushing trillions of dollars in any particular direction. This becomes abundantly clear when we think about statements from Mike Bloomberg, the creator of Bloomberg, or Larry Fink the CEO and Chairman of BlackRock — a company with ~$9 trillion of assets under management. With these two heavyweights you’d think the world would be listening but unfortunately we are still so commonly divided into our two camps of true believers and skeptics. In this article we’ll talk…