Sarasin's Landell-Mills: Why ESG is 'an awkward acronym' and not compelling

Giving stewardship and sustainability more clarity

ESG is "an awkward acronym" that is "not compelling", according to Sarasin & Partners' Natasha Landell-Mills, who said the semantics behind differing terms for sustainable investing "need to be improved".

"People are pulling their hair out about the fact there is no one taxonomy for responsible investing. No, there is not, but I do not think that is necessarily a problem," the head of stewardship said. "We need to improve the semantics and get better definitions, for sure. But the fact there is diversity is in a sense good because it means there is quite a lot of creativity, and quite a lot of doing things in an original way." Asset managers failing to lead the way on responsible investment However, she describes ESG - or environmental, social and governance investing - as "three ra...