If you’re a fund management business looking to attract new investors, there’s one guaranteed route to success. Put any of the words responsible, sustainable, ethical, green or positive into the name of an investment fund and then sit back as investors buy into it. Sustainable, ethical or ESG investing is currently one of the hottest … Read more
What do you want from your investments? Is it purely profit or would you rather that your money did some good too? For many of us, the cold, hard financial reality is that the former dominates our thinking, but there is no denying the latter is gaining ground. The past couple of years have seen … Read more
Having investments need not trouble your conscience. There has been a surge in so-called responsible funds that promise to ensure that your money is put to good use. You can get a decent return on your savings and use them to back firms with a good record on issues such as climate change; or righteous … Read more
An expert has today warned of ‘fundamental ethical concerns’ over vaccine passports. Dr Sarah Chan, a bioethicist at Edinburgh University, said state-issued documentation showing whether someone has received the Covid jab could risk ‘creating a false sense of security’. She explained that proof of having the vaccination does not fully guarantee that a person cannot contract … Read more
A number of leading ethical investment funds continue to hold shares in Grenfell fire firm Kingspan By Jeff Prestridge, Financial Mail on Sunday Published: 21:52 GMT, 23 January 2021 | Updated: 21:52 GMT, 23 January 2021 A number of leading ethical investment funds continue to hold shares in Irish building materials business Kingspan. This is … Read more
Saving the planet and making big business more accountable are two of the greatest challenges of our lifetime, which explains why ESG – environmental, social and governance – investing is always at the centre of controversy. The latest row, this time at Chartwell, a division of catering group Compass, highlights the more assertive mood among … Read more
Investors have piled in to ethical funds in droves after the coronavirus pandemic forced British homes and businesses into lockdown earlier this year. Between January and September a massive £7billion poured into environmental, social and corporate governance funds, up from £1.9billion over the same period a year earlier, according to the Investment Association. Experts posit … Read more
The past six months has seen a surge in people wanting to make the economy greener, with a third of Britons stating the pandemic has sharpened their focus when it comes to the environment. Asked what the Covid-19 outbreak had focused their minds on, 31 per cent said their pandemic experience has increased awareness of climate … Read more
A crumpled blue shirt and cords, beaten-up brown lace-ups and five-day stubble – it’s the classic, bookish Oxford student uniform that makes Seán McPartlin seem an unlikely hero in the war against Covid-19. But that’s exactly what he might become. Astonishingly, the 22-year-old philosophy postgraduate student is one of a handful of men and women … Read more
Businesses are outraged over the six months of fresh Brexit purgatory to which they are condemned, but there are some problems that are even more difficult than extricating ourselves from the EU. Climate change, to name one. It used to be left to the lentil-munchers, but it has gone mainstream in the financial world as … Read more