Wishing or washing? Green investment claims under spotlight

Investment Director, Nathan Parkin was pleased to recently speak with the SMH/Age about thoughts on greenwashing, transparency, ESG in REM and ASIC’s new information sheets for Funds.

The article notes that “Ethical Partners Funds Management investment director Nathan Parkin agrees that funds should be more transparent about their approach to ESG investing”.

Nathan also noted that clear metrics, such as when companies include ESG measures in their executive remuneration, were important to combat any potential “greenwishing” at the company level.  “Tying [ESG] to remuneration over a medium timeframe makes sense,” he says. “If you don’t set the ambition, and you don’t remunerate people for it, they’re less likely to solve the issues, which need to be solved in a meaningful way.”

Nathan also notes that Ethical Partners "welcome ASIC ‘s recent information sheet, which makes some inroads in these areas by directing funds to clearly define the terminology they are using to describe their products, and explicitly explain how sustainability considerations are factored into their investment strategy.”

Ethical Partners will continue its continual engagement with companies on greenwashing, credibility of their sustainability claims and transition plans and the clear replication of these targets in governance, accountability and remuneration schemes.

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