SRI Services & Partners event roundup
Posted on: October 14th, 2019
With another Good Money Week just ended I am delighted to share the news that our event last week appears to have been viewed as a big success. The videos will be with us shortly, but in the meantime here are a few highlights:
Our SRI Services and Partners event was held at the Barbican – attended by approaching 200 people.
The core audience was, as always, intermediaries (financial planners, wealth managers and financial advisers) but also in attendance were NGO’s, fund managers, regulators, standards setters, journalists and other investment and sustainability experts. The aim of the day was to bring people together to share ideas and knowledge about both issues of concern and investment options that can help address sustainability challenges in a financially sound manner.
The day comprised a morning plenary – with the following speakers:
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- SRI Services (Julia Dreblow – sustainable investment news and support for intermediaries & ‘Dialshifter’ consultation launch),
- UKSIF (Simon Howard – sustainable finance industry association – industry and Good Money Week update),
- Ellen MacArthur Foundation (Emily Healy, from EMF – discussing the need for investors to support the transition to a circular economy ),
- Preventable Surprises (Dr Grace Iara Souza adviser to responsible investment think tank – discussing investors role in the Amazon fires)
- Four fund manager breakout sessions on the following topics:
- Sustainability: recognising risks & opportunities (Rathbones, Kames, Pictet)
- ESG integration, stewardship & ethics (Unicorn, Aberdeen Standard, EdenTree)
- Investing for positive impacts & outcomes (Triodos, WHEB, Foresight)
- Sustainability: mission possible (Sarasin & Partners, Janus Henderson, Liontrust)
- The breakout rooms chaired by: UKSIF, EIRIS Foundation, Responsible Investor/Tarne Bevan and RSMR
- Afternoon panel ‘A Changing World’ – speakers:
- BlueSphere Wealth (IFA) founder Mark Armstrong talked through how he discusses this area with clients.
- Ario Advisory (policy), discussed the shifting regulatory backdrop
- WWF (wildlife NGO), Ray Dhirani set out how and why WWF work with the sustainable finance community
- M&G Investments – Ben Constable -Maxwell discussed M&G’s journey
- Keynote speaker Emma Howard-Boyd (Environment Agency Chair) discussed the significance of climate change to investors and society and held a Q&A session
The feedback both during and after the event was fantastic & I would like to say a big thank you to speakers, attendees, room and panel chairs and other helpers for making it all worthwhile!
Perhaps the most wonderful thing about the day was how it all came together to create a fantastic atmosphere, in spite of my having started my session by asking ‘who else here is deeply embarrassed to have school children putting us to shame with regard to our failure to address climate change?’ or words to that effect.
Judging by the response to this and other interactions it was pretty clear that by pretty much everyone in the room recognised the enormity of climate and sustainability related threats and their implications for investors and wider society. And thanks to the many diverse exchanges I am confident everyone (delegates and speakers) came away with a better understanding of what needs to be done – and also as a little more hopeful that investors can and will help ‘shift the dial’ from brown to green, which as we know from Good Money Week research is what so many clients want to do!
And with that in mind the event also saw the launch of our new Dialshifter badge that we are working on with PIMFA and others – which is aimed squarely at making funds, intermediaries and advisers who are on board with the need to shift the dial easy for everyone to recognise.
If you agree that this is a worthwhile program – please respond to our brief Dialshifter survey here.
Event videos will be published on YouTube shortly.
(5 hours CISI CPD – contact Su on funds@sriServices.co.uk for certificates)
