From an investment perspective, sustainable finance describes a broad spectrum of investment approaches which all have a common feature; they explicitly take account of environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) considerations through the investment process. There is a wide breadth of approaches ranging from traditional investment management which takes account of financially material ESG factors to deliver risk adjusted returns to more focussed investment strategies which aim to achieve specific environmental or social outcomes or impacts as a priority over investment returns.

My career has always been on the commercial (e.g. investment sales and distribution) side of the business. I first moved into sustainable finance in 2014 when I was leading an international distribution business. It was in the early days of sustainable finance and looked a lot different from today as European institutional investors were only beginning to incorporate ESG requirements into the way their assets were to be managed. Initially it was a focussed proposition limited in scope but as the industry and regulatory landscape changed, sustainable finance (specifically investment strategies which incorporated explicit climate related aspects) came to mean so much more for our business. When I left the role, these strategies were underpinning more than 50% of our total business by assets under management and our approach was a key tenet of our reputation in the Irish market.

I am really excited about my current role which I took up in August of last year. My responsibility is to lead the Great West Lifeco global sustainable investment strategy across Canada, the US as well as Europe and the UK.

This role requires navigating the differing perspectives on sustainability in as well as different evolving regulatory expectations in local markets in order to consider sustainability within our company’s strategy.

Similar to many Sustainability roles, there remain many challenges to progress – at an industry and policy level. For me though, what is really important and what excites me is that we are working to do create long-term value for our customers, our business and in so doing contributing to an overall system change that can lead to a more sustainable world. 

Two words – encouraged and proud. No one can do this alone and I feel encouraged to be working as part of a team and in partnership with others in the industry to find solutions to the challenges. The results will be seen in years to come and making collective progress on this journey is hugely rewarding and something I am very proud to be a part of. 

We are still at the very early stages and all of us are still learning. Don’t hold yourself back because you don’t have specific sustainable experience or qualifications and instead focus on the skills you bring to strengthen the sustainability team you are joining.

Most importantly you need a keen sense of optimism, pragmatism and a perspective that making progress, big or small, is the key goal. Progress may not be smooth and the strategy adopted needs to be itself sustainable which requires it to be the right thing for a company’s customers and business.