Aiming for impact through active investing
This is just one illustration of how a company can deliver benefits for the environment far beyond its own operations, and be a catalyst for wide-reaching change. To better gauge a company’s impact, fund managers can consider how it enables other companies to conserve energy or water, for example, or otherwise reduce their environmental footprint.
There are clearly multi-billion-dollar opportunities for innovative companies that can successfully deliver products and services that help solve the world’s environmental challenges.
Where active investors can successfully identify these companies, they can not only target sustainable long-term returns for your clients, but also a demonstrably positive impact for the environment.
The value of the fund’s assets will go down as well as up. This will cause the value of your investment to fall as well as rise and you may get back less than you originally invested.
About Ben Constable-Maxwell
Ben is Head of Sustainable and Impact Investing, M&G. He joined M&G in 2003 as an Investment Specialist supporting the Global Equities team. He then moved to the Corporate Finance and Stewardship team in 2013, where he began focusing on corporate governance and ESG at international companies. Ben has been responsible for developing the incorporation of ESG in M&G’s investment processes and sits on M&G’s Responsible Investment Advisory Committee, which oversees Responsible Investment activities at M&G including the firm’s membership of the UNPRI. Ben graduated from the University of Newcastle-uponTyne with an Honours Degree in Classics before spending four years in the Equities team at Invesco Perpetual.
