Practice what you preach: Acting on ESG commitments vital to avoid nascent signs of greenwashing

Covid backdrop accelerates sustainability concerns

Following the upheaval of 2020, it would be understandable to expect the asset management industry to experience something of a reset, with activities and priorities over the coming year being shaped by a new set of focuses defined by Covid-19.

However, this is not proving the case. Indeed, JPES Partners' seventh annual Asset Management Agenda report - which assesses the prominence of key industry themes in the media to identify those most likely to drive the asset management world over the coming year - shows that, if anything, events in 2020 have accelerated a number of longstanding themes, rather than bringing a slew of new (Covid-related) topics to the fore. Perhaps inevitably, the most prominent of these originate from ESG considerations which, as a broad concept, have been a significant driver of asset management activity...