Bonny Landers' Brave New World of Socially Sustainable, Responsible and Impact Investing
Our Speaker for our October 22, 2020 meeting was Bonny Landers. Bonny’s topic was “Socially Sustainable, Responsible and Impact Investing (and other jargon).” Bonnie is a senior finance professional with many years of experience in international banking and in private consulting services. She is currently the Founder and Managing Director of Bay Street Consultants. Since 2008 her focus has been on sustainable, responsible and impact investment. Oh, by the way, she is President Paul’s sister-in-law, whose husband, David, has spoken at our club on several occasions.
Bonny gave us 30-minute summary of SRI (Socially Responsible Investing). Some of the key points include identifying investments that do not cause harm and are ethical, and ensuring that all risks (measurable environmental, social and governance) are taken into account in the process of making decisions on investments. The “impact” part of SRI identifies a strategy of intentionally targeting measurable positive result from your investment. The themes and challenges of sustainable investments include climate change, water and food availability, waste management, and health & wellness. Sustainability also requires stakeholder engagement and shareholder activism. “ESG” (environment, social and governance) factors are also important in determining the sustainability of an investment. Bonny provided an interesting viewpoint from a major accounting/consulting company, Price Waterhouse Cooper: “ESG funds forecast to outnumber conventional funds by 2025.”
Bonnie provided us with valuable insight into a very forward-thinking investment philosophy that may become a dominant factor in the future. It apparently is not all about making the highest return, and many investors are very interested in the SRI concept and strategy.
Well done Bonny: thank you for your presentation and your wonderful slides. We appreciate all your hard work and obvious mastery of the subject of your presentation.
