Q & A with
Emilie Goodall, Head of Environmental and Social Themed Investment, UN-supported
Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI)
 |
Growth in PRI signatories and related AUM. Source: PRI
|
Thanks for speaking
to us Emilie, but first things first, we hear the term a lot, but what does
“Responsible Investment” mean?
Thanks for the opportunity and the questions! Responsible
investment is an approach to investment that explicitly acknowledges the
relevance to the investor of environmental, social and governance (ESG)
factors. Responsible investors recognise that the generation of long-term sustainable
returns is dependent on stable, well-functioning and well governed social,
environmental and economic systems. We have a handy two page summary for those
who want to know more.
That sounds great –
so what is the PRI and how does it work?
The PRI Initiative is an international network of investors
working together to put the six Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI)
into practice. The goal is to understand the implications of sustainability for
investors and support signatories to incorporate these issues into their
investment decision making and ownership practices. There are now nearly 1200 asset owners, investment managers and service providers signed up from around
the world, managing over US$ 30 trillion. The PRI Initiative helps investors to
learn about and collaborate on the financial and investment implications of
environmental, social and corporate governance issues.
Could you give us an
example of how the PRI has led to more responsible investment?
Let me give you a couple! In terms of tackling specific
problems in the investment chain, the PRI runs a collaborative engagement
platform called the Clearinghouse. It provides signatories with a private forum
where they can pool resources and share information when engaging with
companies and policy makers on ESG issues. Collaboration carries extra weight
and can be less resource intensive than if investors engaged alone. One recent
engagement brought together 21 investors concerned with poor public disclosure
of anti-corruption risk management among 21 companies. After three years of
engagement, sixteen companies have improved their performance against a set of
indicators provided by Transparency International, with ten companies improving
their score by four-fold and the leading company improving its score by
six-fold.
