20 years of sustainable investing and what this tells us about the future - Flipbook - Page 13
Despite all this, it is vital to stress
not everything is bad and the
world has also improved in so
many areas – from life expectancy
to access to knowledge, disease
treatment and alleviation of
poverty and hunger. But we are
a long way from achieving the
United
Nations’
Sustainable
Development
Goals
(SDGs),
a set
Fashion Revoluof
17
aims
and
169
individual
tion founded in
targets towards a better, more
wake of Rana Plaza disaster in
sustainable world by 2030.
Bangladesh, bringing greater
focus on global supply chains
This most important outcome of
and shining a light on ‘fast
sustainable investment, to ensure
fashion’.
sustainable development, is far
from evident overall. At best, we
can say we have played a small part in bending the arc of the
transition, that things would have been worse without our actions.
2013
We are certainly not complacent about what we have achieved
and see a pressing need to be just as challenging and radical
in our approach to the next 20 years as we were in 2001.
To that end, we continue to believe the prevailing
system of capital markets and competition between
companies has to be a major part of the solution.
People working together within companies,
putting capital to work towards a common
purpose, has delivered immense good in many
areas and driven much of the progress towards
a higher quality of life and falling poverty. The
best outcomes have occurred where society,
via governments, sets the correct framework,
then companies deliver the solutions.
Over our first 20 years of managing the SF
funds, our investments in companies focused on
innovative healthcare, energy efficiency, waste
recycling, renewables and mobile networks
have been successful precisely because they
have provided something society needs and this
will hold true for the next 20 and beyond.
What the events of 2020 revealed all too clearly,
however, is that the economy and capital markets have
to be the servants of society and not the other way around.
A sustainable society needs to provide opportunities for all
people to live purposeful, fulfilled lives and also operate within
planetary boundaries in a way that preserves and enhances
nature. As investors, we support initiatives such as Just Transition,
which examines how we can manage the shift to a low carbon
economy alongside preserving jobs and livelihoods. In addition,
we have long engaged with companies to improve diversity and
there has been some success in terms of female directors on boards,
something we hope sets a precedent for greater ethnic diversity in
the years ahead.
We have a long way to go before we arrive at an entirely
sustainable model of capitalism. As sustainable investing grows, it
is helping to accelerate this transition, but only as part of a broader
movement that will need governments, businesses, academics,
NGOs, supranational organisations and each and every one of
us working together towards a cleaner, healthier and safer future.
2014
Human
Development
Report released to tackle
areas of inequality and vulnerability,
including disparities in education
across the world.
Liontrust: 20 Years of Sustainable Investing - 13