Last year we outlined our Roadmap to Sustainable Investing. It has been a tumultuous year for the global economy and the markets, but also a year in which our approach of investing in quality companies that have strong and sustainable competitive positions in good and growing markets, with strong managements and solid balance sheets, has been validated by the returns they have been able to generate.
The resilience of the companies we have invested in has also reinforced our conviction that sustainability, quality, and value are closely linked and that we should think about our investment approach in terms of triple sustainability, or even better Sustainability³ — a company that achieves a high level of ESG sustainability should strengthen the sustainability of its competitive position and improve its prospects for generating sustainable value over time. It is a concept that is integral to our investment approach and that we should perhaps seek to trademark…
During this last year we have put into practice the ESG process we have integrated into our investment analysis. We have worked to define and analyse in a much more detailed way the policies and practices of the companies we have invested in and have quantified a number of aggregate portfolio metrics to measure the overall ESG performance of our World Stars Global Equity strategy.
The starting point: Alignment with the UN SDGs
As we outlined in our roadmap in January 2020 our starting point is the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. These provide a blueprint for achieving a better and more sustainable future for all by addressing global challenges, including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental issues, peace and justice. They constitute agreed principles that aim to tackle global challenges and issues by 2030 and provide a roadmap that government, business and social actors are asked to commit to in order to deliver solutions.