ESG investing Diversity and inclusion can drive profitability
Vivien Ng, Equity Specialist for Global Emerging Markets and Asia Pacific, shares how UBS-AM helps companies approach diversity, and the benefits of having a diverse representation in the workplace.
Increased productivity, broader strategic thinking and higher profits are a few of the many benefits of having a diverse workplace. Yet many companies in Asia still struggle to find the right composition, especially at the leadership level.
Vivien Ng
Vivien Ng
Equity Specialist
Global Emerging Markets and Asia Pacific
UBS-AM actively takes a stance on diversity
UBS-AM actively takes a stance on diversity
We believe in the benefits of diversity and have voted against management of our investee companies due to ack of gender diversity.
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votes against management for lack of gender diversity.1
EIU research: Diversity and inclusion has strong correlation with long-term performance
EIU research: Diversity and inclusion has strong correlation with long-term performance
We sponsored The Economist Intelligence Unit2 to survey 450 investors. Interviews with large institutional investors reveal that diversity and inclusion can help with performance.
From a pure investment perspective, companies with an advanced diversity and inclusion policy have demonstrated that they performed better
Torben Möger Pedersen, CEO, PensionDanmark
Diversity is catching on with large institutions
CalPERs is currently looking at human capital management, particularly issues of racial justice.
“We want to develop a racial equity audit on our portfolio in the same way we've done carbon footprinting,” says Anne Simpson, Managing Investment Director, Board CaPERS.
Afterall, “one of the best correlations that academics and quants in the financial space have identified between an ESG data point and long-term performance is actually diversity inclusion,” says Leon Saunders Calvert, Head of Sustainable Investing at Refinitiv.
However, diversity is still not ranked as highly compared to environmental issues
This is in part due to the ease in quantifying “E” factors compared to “S” factors can be overstated. “There is a lot of focus on climate, and you can measure things like carbon emissions, so people feel it’s robust compared to social factors.”
It is also one of the least considered investment themes – only 18% of those surveyed said that they were considering gender diversity / women empowerment (compared to 35% for renewable energy).
Resetting the agenda:
How ESG is shaping the future
How ESG is shaping the future
We sponsored The Economist Intelligence Unit to survey 450 investors and gather insights on how the ongoing shift of ESG from risk to opportunity is shaping the future.
The survey provides a detailed look at global trends in sustainability, and highlighted that the need to integrate ESG factors when investing has become even more critical.
Employing ESG is not just to mitigate risks and identify opportunities but allows investors to engage with companies and bring about the positive change needed to drive a sustainable economic recovery post the pandemic.
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