InvestorDaily’s inaugural ESG Summit has wrapped after two days of fascinating sessions and panel discussions. Attended by almost 1,000 finance professionals, the ESG Summit shed light on the accelerating trend towards responsible and ethical investing and answered questions from those keen to get ahead of the curve.
“Fundamentally the money is shifting. We’re just seeing this rapid surge in commitments across the Australian financial markets to responsible investing in many different guises and forms,” Simon O'Connor, chief executive of the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia, told the summit.
Hosted by The Chaser’s Julian Morrow, the ESG Summit also provided a key opportunity to assess how COVID-19 has reshaped finance, creating risks and opportunities alike. Utilising a purpose-built live studio and virtual solutions, the summit also showcased how Momentum Media has adapted to meet the challenges of COVID-19 by serving up both top-notch education and entertainment on a seamlessly integrated digital platform.
The summit was an important temperature check for the state of Australian finance, with event partners debating the fallout of the Hayne royal commission and the decisions advisers must make to protect their clients from greenwashing and other unethical behaviour.
“The royal commission made it very clear that the solution is not simply to enact more laws and rules…practically, it’s impossible to write new rules fast enough to keep up with all the new ways that we can find to do the wrong thing. The human species is pretty good at circumventing rules,” said Stuart Palmer, head of ethics research at Australian Ethical.
“So the solution instead, is to try to create an organizational culture within the company that genuinely respects the interests of all its stakeholders, and design the organizational systems to promote that culture. Easy to say, hard to do.”
