Features

Is sustainable investment gaining traction among financial advisers?

Published

12 years ago

March 25, 2013

Simon Leadbetter

With guides coming out from stalwarts of unsustainable investment, FT Adviser and New Model Adviser (part of Citywire), we have to ask if sustainable investment is gaining traction with financial advisers.

New Model Adviser describes sustainable and responsible investment as a “rapidly growing part of the industry” while FT Adviser says it is a “growing area”.

This contrasts with FT Adviser’s more sceptical view, expressed in November 2012, which said, “While ethical investment is growing slightly in popularity, funds of this type still struggle to gain traction compared to investments with no ethical screening process.”

We’re delighted to welcome Citywire and the Financial Times’ adviser brand to advocacy of sustainable investment. We can only hope they will use their considerable investigative resources, reach and influence to be increasingly critical of unsustainable, irresponsible and unethical investment, rather than just opportunistically profiting from an injection of advertising from a fund.

In the meantime, we recommend you read our Guide to Sustainable Investment 2013 and look our for our guides on ethical financial advice and ethical funds, coming out this week.

Simon Leadbetter

Simon Leadbetter is the founder and publisher of Blue & Green Tomorrow. He has held senior roles at Northcliffe, The Daily Telegraph, Santander, Barclaycard, AXA, Prudential and Fidelity. In 2004, he founded a marketing agency that worked amongst others with The Guardian, Vodafone, E.On and Liverpool Victoria. He sold this agency in 2006 and as Chief Marketing Officer for two VC-backed start-ups launched the online platform Cleantech Intelligence (which underpinned the The Guardian’s Cleantech 100) and StrategyEye Cleantech. Most recently, he was Marketing Director of Emap, the UK’s largest B2B publisher, and the founder of Blue & Green Communications Limited.