Sustainable September: Royal Geographical Society to host Investment Debate

The Royal Geographical Society in London is to play host to a debate around the purpose of investment, as part of Sustainable September, Blue & Green Tomorrow’s month-long celebration of sustainability. You can book your tickets here.

Four leading speakers, two on either side, will put forwards arguments for and against the motion, “The purpose of investment is maximising financial return and nothing else.”

Each will have seven minutes to give an opening statement, and then two minutes to rebut the opposition’s argument. This is followed by questions from the audience.

Delegates will be invited to vote for or against the motion, or say they are undecided, before the debate takes place, and then again afterwards. The winner is the team that has swayed the most audience members between the two votes, and not the one with highest absolute figure.

Among those confirmed as speakers so far is Catherine Howarth, chief executive of the responsible investment charity ShareAction, who is arguing against the motion. On the opposite side is Russ Mould, investment research director of financial services firm AJ Bell and former editor of Shares magazine. Two other speakers will be announced over the next couple of weeks.

The event takes place at the Royal Geographical Society in London on September 23. It will be preceded by four other evening debates and followed by an all-day sustainability conference on September 30.

For tickets for the Investment Debate, see here. Otherwise, click here for details on all five events.

Further reading:

Introducing: Sustainable September

What is Sustainable September?

Tickets on sale for Blue & Green Tomorrow’s Sustainable September events