'The financial crisis catalysed responsible investment - let's not wait for the next crisis to take it further'

It is eight years since a culture of irresponsible investment led to the collapse of Lehman Brothers and put the global financial sector on the edge of the abyss, writes Lauren Compere, MD and director of shareholder engagement at Boston Common Asset Management.

The sector has recovered and, encouragingly, one of the most significant changes since 2008 has been the embrace of concepts such as responsible investment and the consideration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors by asset owners and investment managers.  We are seeing deeper integration of ESG factors from a broader range of investment management approaches. The big global drivers behind ESG strategies According to Northern Trust, only around 8% of global long-term assets under management integrated ESG factors, but by 2014 this had risen to almost 30%. A stud...