Abstract
Sustainable investing includes the application of non-financial (Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)) criteria to asset selection in institutional investor portfolios [Capelle-Blancard, G., and S. Monjon. 2011. “Trends in the Literature on Socially Responsible Investment: Looking for the Keys Under the Lamppost.” Business Ethics: A European Review 21(3): 239–250]. The article explores the implications for applying ESG screening to the institutional investors making the asset selections. Institutional investors are a heterogeneous group of investors, with fund managers specifically being some of the largest listed organisations globally [Ingley, C. B., and N. T. van der Walt. 2004. “Corporate Governance, Institutional Investors and Conflicts of Interest.” Corporate Governance 12(4): 534–553]. Whether their own corporate management duties to fiduciary governance (the G in ESG) benefiting their shareholders has any material impact on the financial returns outcomes of the pension asset management contract, and specifically whether there is a fiduciary conflict favouring of the exclusive best interest of fund management shareholders is the question addressed by the paper.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
ORCID
Richard McManus http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8430-9328