US SIF, the Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment, has created a guide for money managers who want to introduce or expand their sustainable and responsible investments, US SIF announced Wednesday.
The US SIF Foundation Money Manager Roadmap, which is available for free through the organization’s website, complements the Financial Advisors Roadmap released earlier this year. The new guide provides resources for advisory firms’ investment committees and chief investment officers who want to develop their firm’s sustainable, responsible and impact (SRI) offerings.
“A key question for any firm from a business strategy perspective is how much emphasis to place on firm-wide ESG (environmental, social and governance) integration versus impact or sustainability-themed strategies. Some firms start by implementing some level of ESG integration and later leverage their ESG expertise to develop sustainability-themed strategies, impact investing, positive/best-in-class screening and negative screening,” the roadmap says.
The guide includes information on how firms can measure and report on the impact of their SRI investment strategy to clients. It also gives money managers an overview of the key components of SRI investing, ESG incorporation and investor engagement.
The roadmap explores SRI investing performance and ways SRI investing reduces risk, and identifies the leading ESG criteria considered by money managers and institutional investors in their asset management and investor engagement activities. In addition, money managers are shown how they can develop or deepen their SRI activities.