Invest

The Guide to Sustainable Investment May 2016

Published

9 years ago

May 25, 2016

Blue & Green Tomorrow

Is this really issue six? Yes it is. You are about to hold in your hand the sixth edition of our flagship guide. This is what Blue & Green is really all about, without being all mind-numbingly dull about it – investing, and sustainable investing at that. Little did we think back in 2012 that we’d still be here in 2016, but we are, better and stronger than ever.

In that time, as our SRI expert in residence, John Fleetwood of 3D Investing, reports: “Sustainable funds in our universe of funds have demonstrated outperformance of the relevant benchmarks… The average sustainable UK Equity investment fund outperformed the index in each of the past five years… Overall, [Global Equities] have outperformed the global index over three of the last five discrete years, with a total outperformance of 3%.”

If you were going to place a bet and missed the 5000:1 Leicester City giant-slayer then investing in sustainability is backing a real long-term winner.

We have excellent contributions and insight from high scoring 3D-rated funds Alliance Trust Investments (Simon Clements), WHEB Group (George Latham) and Columbia Threadneedle (Carine Walker).

UKSIF’s Simon Howard asks if the launch of a draft guide by The Pensions Regulator is a significant moment, while ShareAction’s [name] explores what looks good in the pensions industry.

We also have a different perspective from Aberdeen YMCA’s CEO Ian Marr (see him in action here) on Social Impact Investment.

All told, we’re feeling optimistic about 2016 and beyond. It’s like we’re at a tipping point. Performance data bears out the wisdom of this investment strategy, that you can maximise good and minimise harm.