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Article | 25 January 2022 | ESG
Last year was a turning point for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives, with worldwide commitments to ESG and net-zero goals skyrocketing. However, the world of ESG and sustainable finance has also drawn unprecedented scrutiny. The industry has even been dogged by claims of ‘greenwashing’, where companies inflate their environmental credentials to increase their appeal to ethical investors.
On the world stage at COP26, the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation (which oversees accounting standards in more than 140 nations) announced plans to create global minimum standards that companies must meet in reporting on climate-related risks. This was through the creation of the new International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). Addressing the current concerns regarding the quality and consistency of ESG reporting by companies that will be held accountable for disclosing their climate risks for the first time.
We welcome this initiative and believe this clarity should help with ‘greenwashing’ worries. Investors and companies have long struggled with the wide disparity of current ESG reporting. The ISSB should help bring some consistency to reporting and make meaningful comparisons easier. By having agreed industry-wide standards, businesses will no longer hide behind unsubstantiated and inaccurate claims.
Each month, we look at the steps Architas and the AXA Group are taking towards a better, more sustainable future for our employees, communities and the wider world.
In 2018, we began our journey to full ESG integration across all our offers, and in December we reached our goal of 100% of assets under management being fully integrated. Across all the Architas offers, ESG due diligence is embedded in our fund selection process. This means investors can be confident that even if they invest in an offer that does not have an explicit sustainable investment objective, the funds in their portfolio meet our strict ESG criteria.
At Architas we specialise in multi-manager, multi-asset investing. We work with fund managers to ensure they are investing responsibly and focusing on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. In 2018, we began our journey to full ESG integration across all of our offers, and we aim to achieve this by the end of 2021. Since 2018 we have also been signatories of the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment. For more information about our responsible investing process please click here.
