The interest in environmental, social and governance investing has risen exponentially over the past 20 years, but ESG investing is still in its early stages, said Peter Lindley, president and chief executive officer of the OPSEU Pension Trust, when speaking at the Canadian Investment Review’s 2020 Global Investment Conference in September. “As a long-term investor, […]
The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and multi-stage investment firm S2G Ventures are creating a co-investment partnership whereby the Caisse will invest up to US$125 million over the next three years in ventures that aim to make the food and agriculture industry more sustainable and climate friendly. “By enabling investments in ventures and […]
Mark Carney will lead a team at Brookfield Asset Management focused on investing in positive environmental, social and governance changes, the alternative asset manager said Wednesday. The former governor of the Bank of Canada and Bank of England will join the firm as vice-chair and head of ESG and impact fund investing. Brookfield said Carney, […]
Canada’s green bond market has been growing, but investors would benefit from digging a little deeper to ensure what they’re buying is in fact green and not merely clever greenwashing. Green bonds are still in their infancy. The world’s first green bond was introduced in 2007 and the first Canadian one was issued in 2012. […]
Morningstar Inc. is taking aim at the disparate ESG disclosure requirements still hampering the investment industry. In a recent report, Morningstar explored some of the issues hindering ESG measurement tools. “Simply put, ESG disclosures from issuers are all too often inconsistent and non-comparable and material information is not always available.” One key problem, it noted, […]
The British Columbia Investment Management Corp. has released its environmental, social and governance strategy, which outlines its beliefs, principles, governance and how its investment strategies consider ESG factors. The strategy includes four components: integrate, influence, invest and insight. In particular, the BCI is focused on integrating ESG analysis and risk management into investment processes, influencing […]
The Institutional Limited Partners Association has included the University of Toronto Asset Management Corp. in its environmental, social and governance roadmap and resources compilation. “Comprised of best practices that limited partners can consider implementing to advance ESG efforts at their organizations, the roadmap promotes the sharing of initiatives and resources on a global basis,” the […]
With environmental, social and governance issues becoming more prominent among investors, it’s important to consider what sustainability means for DC plans. Plan sponsors are facing somewhat conflicting objectives, said Christine Girvan, senior managing director and head of Canadian distribution at MFS Investment Management, during a session at Benefits Canada‘s 2020 DC Plan Summit in Montreal […]
Two big players in the investment research space are joining forces. Morningstar Inc., a U.S.-based independent research firm is fully acquiring Sustainalytics, a Dutch-domiciled firm specializing in environmental, social, and governance ratings and research. Morningstar already took on a 40 per cent ownership stake in Sustainalytics in 2017 and will be buying the remaining 60 […]
Research and ratings firm Sustainalytics is launching a set of environmental, social and governance indicators aimed at helping investors with security selection, portfolio construction, risk and scenario analysis, as well as meeting disclosure requirements. The data covers more than 220 ESG indicators across several themes, subdivided into three categories. The ESG management indicators are meant […]