Investors’ Perspectives on Sustainability

In the previous chapters, we noted how the financial industry in general, and institutional investors in particular, have started to imbed environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors and UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into their valuation and portfolio management methodologies. In effect, the industry is acknowledging the fact that companies actively managing relevant ESG parameters are not only controlling their risk exposure better but also constructing more sustainable futures, with both dimensions leveraging each other to increase valuations. In this chapter, we elaborate on this rationale by looking at how major financial investors have adopted sustainability, either by incorporating the principles in their practices or by developing investment schemes around it. For this, we have sequentially reviewed the worlds of venture capital, private equity, hedge fund and mutual fund managers, with examples in each. We successively document how the various investor classes incorporated ESG metrics into their value creation arsenals, dedicating investments and personnel to the pursuit of higher goals.