We’re often asked about the most important ESG themes that investors should consider. As bottom-up, active managers, we unsurprisingly tend to focus on those issues that are most material for each investment case. That said, there are several overarching ESG topics that we believe are increasingly important for investors to be aware of right now.
Kids in the Philippines threw rocks and slurs at a 6-year-old boy when he tried to go to school. In Madagascar, an 8-year-old girl was shunned by her village and abandoned by her mother, who couldn’t overcome the stigma of her daughter’s condition. In Morocco, a 12-year-old girl hid in shame at home, so no one could see her face. All three children had a cleft condition, a birth defect that disfigures one in every 500 to 750 babies worldwide. They endured cruelty and isolation for years until a surgery by Operation Smile profoundly changed their lives.
Increasingly, employees with pensions think about how environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors affect their investments. BNY Mellon’s Marvin Vervaart, Asset Owner Segment Head for Europe, Middle East, Africa, and pension fund manager Gert-Jan Sikking, Senior Advisor Responsible Investment for PGGM, a Dutch cooperative pension fund manager, discuss the trend and how it benefits society, our business and our stakeholders.
At PNC, we intentionally seek and develop top talent with varied experiences, skills and perspectives so that we can meet the needs of our growing and increasingly diverse customer base. At the same time, we foster a workplace culture where employees are engaged and feel valued and appreciated for who they are and what they do.
Las Vegas Sands is the leader in sustainability within the hospitality industry. Through Sands ECO360, its global sustainability program, the company implements strategic initiatives that minimize its environmental footprint on the planet. Since setting the five-year goals in 2015, the program has made outstanding progress detailed in its 2017 Environmental Progress Report.
Melissa Nielsen, a project engineer for Tetra Tech’s Solid Waste Management Practice in Vancouver, Canada, discusses the roll-out of a food scraps collection program in British Columbia, Canada, and the resulting trash reduction and shift in community attitudes. Tetra Tech was engaged to perform a solid waste system assessment; provide strategy, design, and implementation support for an every-other-week trash collection pilot; and perform a door-to-door outreach for a municipality-wide food scraps collection program roll-out. All opinions expressed in this post are the author’s own.