Key highlights
- Increasingly a business risk not to embrace sustainability
- UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is a handy ESG guide
- ESG and Shariah Investing share similar objectives
Kicking off the third ‘Ride the markets with us in 2021’ webinar series titled From Values to Value: Sustainability trends and solutions, Thio Boon Kiat, CEO of UOB Asset Management (UOBAM), noted that Sustainability is currently on the cusp of a megatrend in Asia.
Sustainability has been gaining ground and becoming more influential in the decision making processes by governments and businesses such that it is a business risk not to embrace sustainability on issues relating not just to the environment but also labour conditions and human capital management such as income and gender equality.
Masja Zandbergen, Head of Sustainability Integration at Robeco which is a UOBAM partner, pointed out how the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has become a useful roadmap for the investment community for guidance in assessing how Environmental, Social and Corporate (ESG) practices are been tracked and parlayed into the investment actions taken by the financial community in their fiduciary roles.
Suhazi Reza Selamat, CEO of UOB Islamic Asset Management, spoke about the complementary aspects of both ESG and Shariah Investing through different filters to work towards similar objectives in order to make a better value proposition for the community, stakeholder and investors alike while Lynn Sirianong Peyasantiwong, Multi-Asset Portfolio Manager of UOBAM Thailand, covered how Corporate Governance can be implemented to ensure the continued success of sustainable investing.
Other speakers, Albert Budiman, CIO of UOBAM Indonesia, and Kenneth Tay, ESG analyst at UOBAM, looked at how sustainability is gaining traction in areas of transport and energy management.
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