tmmonline.nz  |   landlords.co.nz        About Good Returns  |  Advertise  |  Contact Us  |  Terms & Conditions  |  RSS Feeds

NZ's Financial Adviser News Centre

GR Logo
Last Article Uploaded: Friday, October 11th, 6:54PM

Special Report

rss
Sponsored Content

Sustainability about people and enterprises, not metrics

At Stewart Investors, we believe the true drivers of sustainable development are to be found in people and enterprises, not sustainability metrics.

Tuesday, September 27th 2022, 8:31AM 1 Comment

Take soy milk company Vitasoy as an example.

Vitasoy is stewarded by the Lo family. The founder Dr. KS Lo sold soy milk door-to-door as a low cost source of protein from 1940 - a time of food shortages and malnutrition in Hong Kong. Over the eight decades since, the company has been managed with competence, humility and integrity, and now provides healthy dairy alternatives in 40 countries.

What Dr. Lo didn’t know back in 1940, was that plant-based proteins like soy milk would one day be vital for managing a different crisis - climate change. Soy results in less than a third of the greenhouse gas emissions of dairy milk, along with a fraction of the land and water use. However, while Vitasoy’s business drives an important climate change solution – plant-rich diets - it is often not categorised as a ‘climate solutions company’ by sustainability researchers. 

It is stories like Vitasoy’s which show the limitations of top-down, narrowly focused efforts at aggregating sustainability metrics. While we could develop portfolio level metrics and elaborate calculators, which aggregate and quantify the contributions the companies we invest in are making to sustainable development, such an approach would always be heavily laden with assumptions and be driven by abstraction. Has my investment really resulted in 1,000 cars worth of emissions being taken off the road?

It would also fail to capture the central role the leaders and employees of the companies we invest in play in achieving these outcomes, which also happens to be the question we focus on more than any other – can we trust the stewards of this company to do the right thing with our clients’ capital?

We couldn’t guess at how much less ruminant emissions will be from the growth of soy milk vs dairy in one scenario vs another, or the number of hectares of forest that will be saved thanks to Vitasoy’s plant-based milk sales, but we know the potential is huge. Like ‘colour by numbers’, sustainability by numbers forces investors to stay within the lines. This results in the deep interconnections between social and environmental issues being missed, even though we believe, this is where some of the best opportunities that sustainable investment has to offer lie.

As long-term equity investors, our focus is on understanding the contributions individual companies make to sustainable development from the bottom-up. This holistic view of sustainable development allows us to better appreciate the many ways businesses can and are contributing to a better future.

We also believe that by sharing the stories of every company we invest in, and connecting them to the products and services we consume in our everyday lives, we can better illustrate the many ways these businesses are making the world a better place for people and planet. You can discover these companies for yourself by visiting our Portfolio Explorer tool.

https://www.stewartinvestors.com/nz/en/adviser-institutional/sustainable-funds-group/introducing-portfolio-explorer/portfolio-explorer.html

READ DISCLAIMER

Important information

https://www.goodreturns.co.nz/disclaimers

 

Tags: Stewart Investors

« Are you undertaking regular client KiwiSaver reviews?Wealthpoint Nelson Grows Their Revenue and Improves Their Client Experience with a New KiwiSaver Tool »

Comments from our readers

On 30 September 2022 at 8:13 pm Realist said:
What is conveniently forgotten, is that much of the worlds commercial soya bean production is from genetically modified plants. Initially this was to make soya beans resistant to glyphosate (Roundup). Monsanto at the time was a major seed breeder/producer/supplier and Roundup was a leading herbicide from the 1980's.

Sign In to add your comment

 

print

Printable version  

print

Email to a friend
News Bites
Latest Comments
Subscribe Now

Mortgage Rates Newsletter

Daily Weekly

Previous Special Reports

MORE NEWS»

Most Commented On
Mortgage Rates Table

Full Rates Table | Compare Rates

Lender Flt 1yr 2yr 3yr
AIA - Back My Build 5.94 - - -
AIA - Go Home Loans 8.49 ▼6.19 ▼5.69 ▼5.69
ANZ ▼7.89 6.79 6.29 6.29
ANZ Blueprint to Build 7.39 - - -
ANZ Good Energy - - - 1.00
ANZ Special - 6.19 5.69 5.69
ASB Bank 8.39 ▼6.19 ▼5.69 ▼5.69
ASB Better Homes Top Up - - - 1.00
Avanti Finance 8.90 - - -
Basecorp Finance 9.60 - - -
BNZ - Classic - 6.19 5.79 5.79
Lender Flt 1yr 2yr 3yr
BNZ - Mortgage One ▼7.94 - - -
BNZ - Rapid Repay ▼7.94 - - -
BNZ - Std ▼7.94 6.45 5.89 5.79
BNZ - TotalMoney ▼7.94 - - -
CFML 321 Loans 6.70 - - -
CFML Home Loans 6.95 - - -
CFML Prime Loans 8.75 - - -
CFML Standard Loans 9.70 - - -
China Construction Bank - 7.09 6.75 6.49
China Construction Bank Special - - - -
Co-operative Bank - First Home Special - ▼5.99 - -
Lender Flt 1yr 2yr 3yr
Co-operative Bank - Owner Occ 8.15 ▼6.19 ▼5.75 5.69
Co-operative Bank - Standard 8.15 ▼6.69 ▼6.25 6.19
Credit Union Auckland 7.70 - - -
First Credit Union Special - 6.60 6.10 -
First Credit Union Standard 8.50 7.20 6.70 -
Heartland Bank - Online 7.99 6.69 6.35 6.15
Heartland Bank - Reverse Mortgage - - - -
Heretaunga Building Society 8.90 7.00 6.50 -
ICBC 7.49 6.15 5.69 5.69
Kainga Ora 8.39 7.05 6.59 6.49
Kainga Ora - First Home Buyer Special - - - -
Lender Flt 1yr 2yr 3yr
Kiwibank 8.25 7.19 6.69 6.59
Kiwibank - Offset 8.25 - - -
Kiwibank Special - 6.29 5.79 5.79
Liberty 8.59 8.69 8.79 8.94
Nelson Building Society 8.75 6.69 6.19 -
Pepper Money Advantage 10.49 - - -
Pepper Money Easy 8.69 - - -
Pepper Money Essential 8.29 - - -
SBS Bank 8.49 ▼6.95 ▼6.29 ▼6.29
SBS Bank Special - ▼6.35 ▼5.69 ▼5.69
SBS Construction lending for FHB - - - -
Lender Flt 1yr 2yr 3yr
SBS FirstHome Combo 5.94 5.45 - -
SBS FirstHome Combo - - - -
SBS Unwind reverse equity 9.95 - - -
TSB Bank 9.19 7.09 6.59 6.59
TSB Special 8.39 6.29 5.79 5.79
Unity 8.64 6.29 5.79 -
Unity First Home Buyer special - 6.20 - -
Wairarapa Building Society 8.50 ▼6.50 ▼5.89 -
Westpac 8.39 6.89 6.39 6.39
Westpac Choices Everyday 8.49 - - -
Westpac Offset 8.39 - - -
Lender Flt 1yr 2yr 3yr
Westpac Special - 6.29 5.79 5.79
Median 8.39 6.47 6.10 5.79

Last updated: 12 October 2024 6:37pm

About Us  |  Advertise  |  Contact Us  |  Terms & Conditions  |  Privacy Policy  |  RSS Feeds  |  Letters  |  Archive  |  Toolbox  |  Disclaimer
 
Site by Web Developer and eyelovedesign.com