Responsible Investing – not a fleeting fad

By David Fyfe

Given the benefit of time and the increase in ESG driven funds, it is interesting to see the array of Sustainable/ESG funds on offer both locally and offshore, as well as how those funds have performed compared to their peers and the wider market.

Looking through the recent Zenith Investment Partners month performance tables (largely Australasian funds), there certainly are groups of outperforming ESG/Sustainable funds that sit across different asset classes as well as sectors.

While this is pleasing to see, hidden behind many of the other traditional funds will often be ESG factor overlays or integration that is also at play. The point here is that defining an ESG fund or strategy, and then comparing it to ones without, is becoming far harder and further, to then determine whether that is the driver of the outperformance becomes trickier again.