Investing For Our Planet
With so many challenges in the world today, it’s not just the economic conditions that are front of mind with an increasing number of investors right now.
Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors are becoming more commonly discussed in client meetings, and these issues are commonly strategically considered by many of our investors today. This is particularly notable as millennials (the change generation) are joining the ranks of investors, bringing a level of awareness, a broader education and determination to do things differently. This is creating a surge in responsible investing. Demand for investments now goes beyond the financial return, and this in turn, is driving behavior change within the very companies and industries looking for your investment.
So, what is ESG Investing?
ESG investing involves considering environmental, social and governance factors alongside financial considerations when assessing investment opportunities.
1. Environmental factors refer to how companies are performing in their stewardship of the environment, for example:
Carbon footprint
Energy consumption
Greenhouse gas emissions
2. Social factors consider how companies manage relationships with employees, suppliers, customers, and the areas where they operate, for example:
Human rights and social justice
Working conditions and employee relations
Health and safety standards
3. Governance factors focus on company leadership, for example:
Board diversity, structure and pay
Avoidance of bribery and corruption
Management and culture
ESG investing offers the potential to invest in ways that reflect the values that are important to you through using investment solutions that aim to take related ESG characteristics into account.
ESG investing may be referred to by other terms such as socially responsible investing, sustainable investing, impact investing, or values-based investing.
There are a range of ESG investment approaches and strategies that fund managers may use within their funds.
There is no exhaustive list of ESG investments and a fund manager may use a range or combination of approaches within their fund.
Here are some of the most common approaches:
| Responsible Ownership / Stewardship | Fund managers use their position as an investor to encourage the companies they invest in to improve their ESG practices – for example by holding meetings with senior management and voting at AGMs. |
| ESG Integration | Fund managers consider ESG issues as part of their investment research and decision making. |
| Exclusions | Exclusions prohibit certain investments from a firm, fund or portfolio. Exclusions may be applied on a variety of issues. Examples include: ethical, values-based or religious exclusions, avoiding armaments, tobacco, gambling companies and those with poor social or environmental practices. |
| Sustainability Focus | Fund managers select and include investments that fulfil certain sustainability criteria and/or deliver on specific and measurable sustainability outcomes. |
| Impact investing | Investments are made with the intention to generate positive, measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return. |
Here at Integrity Wealth Solutions, we are building ethical investing into our business and will be happy to discuss with you if you feel this is something you are interested in.
We have also been doing our bit to help the environment by making small, but effective changes in how we work.
Back in 2018, we began using DocuSign, an electronic signature programme.
DocuSign’s commitment is helping to save the world's forests. Since their launch in 2003, DocuSign has helped hundreds of millions of people around the world replace over 20 billion sheets of paper with digital processes. Together, that has preserved over 2.5 million trees that would have been required to make paper. *
The 20 billion sheets of paper Docusign and its customers have saved is just the beginning. Also saved were over 2.5 billion gallons of water needed to make that much paper, plus over 140 million pounds of waste. And because that paper was not made, our planet was spared over 2 billion pounds of additional CO₂.**
Since April 2020, we as a company have saved:
Which is the equivalent of:
Last year we also moved to Warwickshire County Council’s Eliot Park Innovation Centre, a building the Council are keen to make as ecological as possible. The entire delta roof and the south gable end of the building have PV panels fitted; this should return around 105kwh of power on a good sun day. There are recycling bins for all businesses and visitors to use with all of the waste going to be converted to energy at the waste to energy plant in Coventry.
The Council have a roll out programme to convert the lighting to LED variants throughout the entire building, our office has already been converted, once the rest of the building has been upgraded it will offer a return of around 18960kg of CO2e per annum on the energy used for lighting.
Outside the building there are a number of electric vehicle charge points, which are accessed via the PodPoint App. The Council have put the infrastructure in place to allow for the entire outside perimeter of the car park to be converted to electric charging when it becomes necessary.
The heating in the building is controlled by a computerised Building Management System that includes a TermoDeck system, this is the ceiling of the office on every floor and is warmed and then stores energy in its thermal mass.
* Estimates of paper savings are current as of January 2020 and are based on the aggregate number of transactions via DocuSign eSignature since the company was founded in 2003. The model assumes that recipients of a document would print the document once, on average.
** DocuSign recognises that its operations create environmental impacts, such as carbon emissions from data centres and employee travel. The environment is a key stakeholder in our business, and we will continue to prioritise activities to reduce the environmental impact of our business, such as emissions from operations, to maximise the benefits of using DocuSign’s digital processes over paper-based alternatives.