A recent report from the Intentional Endowments Network (IEN) written by Alice DonnaSelva (IEN) and Sara Cleveland (Sara Cleveland Consulting) provides endowments looking to integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into their investments or align their investment strategy with their mission with practical guidance for selecting the right investment consultant for the task.
From the report: “Investment consultants can play a central role incorporating environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into an endowment’s investment strategy. Growing investor demand for portfolios that integrate ESG factors has spurred many investment consultants to work toward expanding their knowledge and use of ESG strategies. However, experience, resources and adoption of the approach are not uniform across the field of investment consultants. According to a 2009 UNEPFI survey, consultants with some knowledge, but without an expertise in ESG, lacked “conviction in ESG integration when pressed on whether clients should integrate ESG into their investment policy statements.”
“This article provides guidance for investors looking for an investment consultant who will help them align their portfolio with their mission throughout the investment process including (1) exploring investment beliefs, (2) defining objectives, setting strategic asset allocation and (3) risk budgeting, manager selection, and ongoing monitoring and reporting.”
Read more here
