Goldman Sachs JBWere and Citi Investment Research and Analysis were both crowned winners by industry association ESG Research Australia at a ceremony in Sydney yesterday.
The inaugural broking awards for excellence in environmental, social and governance (ESG) research crowned Citi Investment Research and Analysis the Best ESG Broking Firm as voted by investment managers.
Best Piece of ESG Research by an individual analyst or team was taken out by Andrew Gray from Goldman Sachs JBWere for a report on how good ethics can translate into good returns.
ESG Research Australia chair Robert Fowler said the awards highlighted the importance of ESG considerations in the investment community.
"We strongly believe that as investors we can make better decisions and improve returns for our members and clients if we take into account long-term environmental, social and governance factors that are often ignored in the more traditional forms of financial analysis," Fowler said.
Despite the challenges presented by the global financial crisis, most of the major Australian brokers had established some form of capacity in the ESG research space, according to Colonial First State Global Asset Management head of sustainability and responsible investment Amanda McCluskey.
McCluskey also headed up the research evaluation committee for the awards.
Established in 2009, ESG Research Australia has a membership that includes 42 institutional investors, including fund managers, superannuation funds and asset consultants.
It has the single objective of increasing the quality and quantity of research by Australian brokers that includes longer-term environmental, social, and governance factors, a statement from ESG Research Australia said.
