Only one per cent of institutional investors described their organizations as non-adopters of environmental, social and governance investing criteria, according to a survey from Capital Group. The survey, which polled 1,100 institutional investors working around the world, found two-thirds of institutional investors that hadn’t adopted ESG strategies a year ago have now done so. Another 10 per […]
The Pension Fund Coalition is publishing a set of generic contracts aimed to help plan sponsors in establishing minimum environmental, social and governance criteria with asset managers. The model contracts are designed to be flexible across a range of scenarios, approaches and asset classes, according to a press release, which noted although the coalition is […]
Investors should expect the unexpected in 2022, according to George Athanassakos, professor of finance and the Ben Graham chair in value investing at Western University’s Ivey School of Business. “2022 is likely to be filled with hidden hazards, both known unknowns and unknown unknowns,” he wrote in an email to the Canadian Investment Review. This […]
A high-profile fraud case and a devastating oil spill directly inspired Maria Elena Drew to focus on environmental, social and governance factors in her investment career. During her session at the Canadian Investment Review’s 2021 Investment Innovation Conference, the director of research in responsible investing at T. Rowe Price said she began her ESG journey […]
The OPSEU Pension Trust is shifting toward responsible investing as environmental, social and governance factors become increasingly more material to returns for institutional investors. “We’re seeing a lot of shifting sands around consumer preferences and expectations,” said Alison Loat, managing director of sustainable investing and innovation at OPTrust, during a session at the Canadian Investment Review‘s […]
With recent deadly heat waves and wild fires ravaging Canada’s west coast and large-scale flooding in the east, who can ignore the growing risk of extreme weather? Irrespective of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, extreme weather events, driven by climate change, are projected to increase in frequency, intensity and duration through the 21st century, […]
In his keynote address at the 2021 Global Investment Conference, Karthik Ramanna, professor of business and public policy at the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government, described the practice of greenwashing in corporate environmental, social and governance reports as “rampant.” “I’m going to give you some fairly specific tactical tools to tell the signal […]
The recent emphasis on environmental, social and governance issues among pension investors will continue to dominate industry conversations in the future, according to a panel discussion with three high-profile figures in Canada’s investment sector during the 2021 Global Investment Conference. “If I could rename ESG, it would be GES,” said Alain Malaket, chief executive officer […]
One year into a five-year plan to reduce its investments in greenhouse gas-emitting companies by 50 per cent, the Bâtirente is on pace to reach its target. Last year, the defined contribution pension fund announced a number of environmental commitments it intended to reach by 2025, including a pledge to reduce its exposure to climate-related […]
The Public Sector Pension Investment Board is becoming a signatory on a diversity, equity and inclusion pledge. The pension fund joined 179 investment organizations in signing the Diversity in Action Initiative from the Institutional Limited Partners Association, an organization dedicated to advancing the interests of limited partner sponsors. Since its launch earlier this year, 11 other Canadian […]