As a growing number of companies worldwide have embraced corporate sustainability as a source of competitive advantage, investors seeking long-term shareholder value have begun to take notice.
In this primer to sustainability investing, we will examine the use of sustainability indices as well as index construction methodologies. We will also explore to what extent environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing is based on subjective factors, and how it can be implemented in a rules-based and objective manner
Dr. Paul Cox, Academic Advisor to NEST Corporation and Senior Lecturer of Finance at the University of Birmingham and Guido Guise, Head of Indices for RobecoSAM, along with our moderator, Hugh Wheelan, Managing Director of Responsible Investor, will share their academic knowledge and discuss:
- Index Methodologies: What’s new in sustainability benchmarks and how are methodologies changing? What should I look for when selecting a sustainability benchmark?
- Robustness/Significance: What robustness tests have been performed and with what significance? Can I trust the actual and expected index performance?
- Benchmark Risk: What are the risk/return trade-offs of adopting sustainability benchmarks? Are there any benefits associated with a higher tracking error?
- Voting & Engagement: Can sustainability indices serve as an effective platform for engagement?
A live Q&A session will follow the webinar.
