How has ethical investing changed in 20 years?

Lesley Duncan on how far ESG investment has come

Laura Dew speaks to Lesley Duncan, manager of the £324m Standard Life Investments UK Ethical fund, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, on how the responsible investing landscape has changed since its launch and which criteria clients consider important.

Interest in ethical investing is clearly growing among many retail investors, although these products still only form a small part of total industry assets. Annual retail sales of ethical funds breached £1bn for the first time in 2017, compared to just £182m ten years ago, while assets held in ethical funds have more than trebled in the past decade to £16.7bn, according to data from Hargreaves Lansdown.  One manager to have experienced this rising popularity of ethical investing first hand is Lesley Duncan, who has headed up the Standard Life Investments UK Ethical fund since 2004.  ...