#22: Dare to Lead? Enough Talk, Time for Action!
Much of the financial community understands the importance of sustainability. No doubt, you are one of them.
However, a recent study by the law firm Mayer Brown found that even though 77% of investment firms believe they must embrace sustainability to thrive going forward, less than 30% have appropriate strategies that look beyond 12 months.
No wonder climate change and other SDG problems are growing rapidly, despite widespread implementation of responsible investing and corporate sustainability strategies.
Something is obviously missing ...
As we’ve discussed extensively in previous posts, apart from a lack of a longer-term perspective, current strategies do not effectively address the systemic root causes that give rise to today’s environmental and social challenges in the first place.
Investment firms that start to acknowledge and address these deeper structural flaws will soon be seen as cutting edge. Not only will they become the true sustainability leaders. They will also reduce investment risk and increase returns and assets under management.
But how to get there?
If we were to arrive at your firm on a Monday morning, here is what we would do:
Assess your existing sustainability and responsible investing strategies.
Recommend how you can most effectively improve existing strategies and integrate system change.
If you choose to move forward with recommendations, we provide the expertise, models, support and training needed in critical areas, including data acquisition, fund development, corporate engagement and marketing.
Early on, we work with senior management and sustainability and investment teams on the firm’s sustainability vision and high-level strategy. Questions asked might include:
How do you define sustainable society, the role of business within it and the overall means to achieve it? (in other words, what’s your theory of change?)
What is the role of investing?
Why is addressing the root causes of global challenges important?
What are the company’s unique strengths and advantages in this area? Where is room for improvement?
What would success look like now and in the future?
A main goal of this work is ...
... to help you to adopt a whole system approach and vision, understand the critical importance of systemic change, and integrate it in a practical and phased way.
Early actions might include
Helping you to effectively discuss systemic changes needed and how to address them.
Identify system change metrics in existing data or find new data sources.
Integrate them into existing funds.
Integrate system change into internal sustainability strategies by identifying existing activities (e.g. lobbying, collaboration, media) and combining them with new high priority work.
Expand corporate engagement strategies to include consideration of systemic change.
Begin the work needed to launch SCI funds.
Intrigued? Curious? Feeling resonance?
Why not get in touch and book a free 30 minutes strategy call to gain deeper insights?