Billionaire investor Stephen Lansdown says that more work is needed to increase confidence in both returns and credibility for green and sustainable investing to become more mainstream.
The co-founder of Hargreaves Lansdown, a Guernsey resident for the past nine years, spoke at the launch event for a research report "Family Offices Financing Sustainability", published by Guernsey Finance, which revealed the family office and private wealth sector is seeking greater confidence in both returns and the green credentials of investments.
"It's too easy to dismiss sustainability because there aren't the yardsticks there yet," Mr Lansdown said. "They are coming, but for those that are already there, you have to look hard to find them. There are so many things happening in this sector – how do you sift through it all to get yourself into a solid portfolio? A yardstick does give you some comfort."
Mr Lansdown has significant sustainable interests in Africa, and is a cornerstone investor in the sustainably-focused private equity Nobel Sustainability Fund®, and a founder shareholder in Earth Capital Holdings (holding company of the manager of the Nobel Sustainability Fund®).
"Earth Capital operates the Earth Dividend" scorecard, which covers five categories of ESG themes which feed into 30 wider indicator tests which can be mapped to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs]. The Earth Dividend" scores each investment or prospect – if it scores positively, we will look at the investment, and after investing we seek positive improvement in the score throughout the investment holding period," he said.
"If Guernsey [through the Guernsey Green Fund] can guide people in that regard, advisers will look at Guernsey and Guernsey funds, knowing they are going through a process which gives them the best possible chance of making a return, and creating the social and environmental impact they want."
Guernsey introduced the Guernsey Green Fund in 2018, the world's first regulated green investment fund product. The Guernsey Finance research can be found HERE.
For more information about Guernsey's finance industry please visit www.weareguernsey.com.
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