The Professionals’ Guide to Responsible Investing – Autumn 2021
Tech’s reassuring lesson for responsible investors
In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Lysander famously observes that “the course of true love never did run smooth” – and the same might be said, rather less romantically for sure, for the course of structural growth trends. These days, for example, the march of technology may seem inexorable but the sector has had a reversal or two along the way – and a similar dynamic is arguably now at play with responsible investing.
A recent slide in share prices for businesses involved in the transition to greener energy sources has given the naysayers a chance to suggest sustainable investing’s latest spell in the spotlight will be short-lived. Yet, just as technology has done before it, responsible investing continues to mature and grow, regardless of share prices – and, as we discuss in The Professionals’ Guide to Responsible Investing, for a number of very solid reasons.
Elsewhere in the guide, we take a closer look at an exciting array of specialisms that find themselves at slightly different stages of development within the realm of responsible investing – from the clean economy and financial inclusion to the fights to protect biodiversity and ward off climate change. In so many ways, the responsible investing sector has a great deal riding on it – not least, the hopes of avoiding another pronouncement from A Midsummer Night’s Dream: “Lord, what fools these mortals be.”
Julian Marr
Editor-in-chief, Portfolio Adviser
