Sustainable Investing in Practice: Esg Challenges and Opportunities

The compelling promise of progressing profits, purpose and the planet is what drives sustainable investing. Yet the field is also packed with challenges and pitfalls for the finance industry.

Sustainable Investing in Practice provides a pragmatic steer for how finance professionals can navigate the realities of ESG investing so they can achieve the impact they desire. It addresses the obvious problems - a lack of common standards, opaque vocabulary, irrelevant data - that investors face. And it explains the skewed incentives and compromises that have held sustainable investing back. Yet it does not dwell on obstacles and defeat. Instead, it shows readers how to develop sustainable strategies and improve outcomes, covering critical topics such as ESG ratings, data and disclosure policies and multi-asset portfolios, while also documenting successful practices and pointing out how to modify inadequate ones.

Packed full of insightful examples, analysis and interviews from expert commentators such as Paul Polman KBE, Richard Curtis OBE, and Gillian Tett, the book provides useful ideas and plans for how to take sustainable finance forward while balancing credibility and commerciality in equal measure. Written by two pioneering leaders within sustainable investing, this is a must-read for every finance professional, investor and regulator-whether they are seeking to fast track their careers, bring commercial and sustainable learning to their organization, or upgrade their understanding of this crucial but complex topic. It will also be of interest to students taking modules on sustainable finance.

Author: Simon Smiles, James Purcell
Publisher: Kogan Page
Published: 01/31/2023
Pages: 344
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.06lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.93d
ISBN13: 9781398607903
ISBN10: 1398607908
BISAC Categories:
- Business & Economics | Finance | General
- Business & Economics | Development | Sustainable Development
- Business & Economics | Banks & Banking

About the Author

Simon Smiles, PhD, was a seasoned sustainable finance investment strategist, based in Zurich, Switzerland. He was Group Managing Director and CIO for Ultra High Net Worth Clients at Swiss multinational investment bank and financial services firm UBS Wealth Management, where he established and ran the wealth management sustainable and impact investing teams. Simon was also a IIF Future Leader, WEF Young Global Leader, and member of the Milken Institute's Young Leaders Circle. Simon was awarded a PhD in economics from Australian National University

James Purcell is the Group Head of ESG, Sustainable, and Impact Investing at Quintet Private Bank, where he is based in Zurich, Switzerland. Previously, James was a Managing Director and the Global Head of Sustainable and Impact Investing at UBS Wealth Management. In 2018 he was named by Financial News as a Rising star of Asset Management under 40. Under his supervision, UBS won variants of Best Private Bank for sustainable investing from Euromoney, Asia Private Banker, and Financial Times publications.