IAPF Spring 2018 Irish Pensions Magazine

IRISH PENSIONS MAGAZINE | SPRING 2018 | 11 EXPERT OPINION 3. Investors are becoming increasingly demanding and discerning Investors’ expectations of the people entrusted with their savings increasingly reflect their environmental, social and governance concerns. Asset owners and managers are under growing pressure to demonstrate how those concerns are reflected in their decisions. We conduct annual surveys of the investing public and institutional investors, the results of which point to a growing awareness of environmental, social and governance factors. Two conclusions stand out from those surveys. On the one hand, the investing public’s awareness ESG investment is maturing as well as growing. Not only do a larger proportion of investors expect managers to consider sustainability factors in their decision-making, their understanding of the issue has developed hugely over recent years, giving a far higher level of awareness of what outcomes they expect, rather than viewing sustainable investing as a “yes/no” question. On the other, the investing public – which reflects many institutions’ end beneficiaries – is more likely to expect that products 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% Significantly more important Somewhat more important No more important Somewhat less important Significantly less important Figure 3: Compared to five years ago, how important has sustainable investing become to you? Source: Schroders Global Investment Survey covering c10,000 European investors. As of June 2017