UKSIF Conference Edinburgh 2017
The UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association (UKSIF) holds an annual conference to discuss the latest issues facing the financial services sector. As members of UKSIF, Castlefield are keen to gain a better understanding of how we can continue to support sustainable economic development. Events such as this allow us to keep up to date with the problems facing our industry and provide thoughtful insights into what the solutions might be.
Kate Hewitt attended the conference in Edinburgh on the 23rd and 24th of February. Not even the ferocious Storm Doris could dampen the attendees’ spirits, with sustainability enthusiasts travelling from far and wide to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. There were presentations, panel discussions and updates on various topics from a number of different companies. The MSCI group were head partner to the event and researcher Matt Moscardi hosted a few of the key sessions, including an insightful look at how consideration of Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) issues can help boost company performance and reduce short termism. Another particularly interesting session looked at the how the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) put forward by the UN could be corrupted by companies that seek to use them as a marketing tool rather than really addressing the problems the goals look to solve. The audience participation that followed brought to light topics worth considering when deciding whether a company is “jumping on the bandwagon”, the most important being that each of the 17 goals is underpinned by targets (169 in total) and if a company is not helping to meet any of these targets then they cannot reasonably claim to be working towards an SDG. One of Friday’s highlights was a panel discussion centred around the role of ratings systems in sustainable investing, there were opinions shared on whether it was possible to quantify something as fundamentally qualitative as values based investing.
The conference was a great event that brought together interesting speakers from lots of different areas. UKSIF does brilliant work in spreading the word about the importance of sustainable investment and Castlefield continue to be proud members of the association.