Financial markets strive to be perceived to be doing good and doing well. This drives their focus on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing and increasingly limits projects they can agree to fund without damaging their reputation.

Responsible investment has witnessed explosive growth the recent years. What used to be only a niche investment strategy as well as distinct fund class is now a common practice across major financial markets globally, including in emerging markets. An entire industry for ESG products and services has emerged in response to the demands of both asset owners and asset managers. Asset managers have stopped wondering whether to integrate ESG and are driven to differentiate themselves by increasingly improved and sophisticated ESG investment approaches.

This rapid growth has progressed hand in hand with extensive coverage of ESG aspects in finance by specialist and mainstream financial and non-financial news media. With this, also critical pieces are plentiful from detailing the actions of activist shareholders, to insider views by critical ex-employees triggering scandals of misrepresenting ESG issue in finance.

The trend of sustainability issues in finance getting increasing prominence shows no signs of stopping. Freshly, the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) has seen the emergence of a new initiative – that of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD). The complexity of considerations is increasing and public scrutiny of the delivery on these responsibilities with it.

Our approach supports businesses in the financial sector in improving their practices before it is mandated by regulators and helps them stand out among leaders.