香港地球之友綠色金融顧問 / Green Finance Advisor of Friends of the Earth (HK)
毫無疑問，公眾近年對ESG(環境、社會與管治)的興趣一直在增加。現階段，一眾投資者在選擇和管理資產時，對於把環境、社會及管治標準應用到財務評估上，表示出極大的興趣。他們尤其有興趣評估如何將ESG完全應用到投資流程，並要求分析ESG因素以識別變化及充分發揮增加回報的潛力。要實現此目標，投資者可採用不同的策略將ESG完全應用到他們的投資流程中：1）合規篩選； 2）ESG融入流程； 3) 負面篩選和正面/最佳等級篩選； 4）影響力/社區性投資；5）可持續發展主題投資； 6）企業參與及持份者行動。
環境、社會與管治投資策略
1) 合規審查篩選
在ESG世界中，合規審查篩選意味著研究具潛力的投資機會和全球規範的兼容性，例如氣候保護、人權、工作環境和反貪污措施等，並基於國際規範的最低商業行為標準進行篩選。國際規範來源包括經濟合作暨發展組織（OECD）、國際勞工組織（ILO）、聯合國（UN）和聯合國兒童基金會（UNICEF）。此行動計劃能根據這些國際公約制定的標準和規則來評價企業的操守行為。
2) ESG融入流程
ESG融入流程，意即把ESG因素納入基準來與同行企業進行比較，或根據企業的ESG往積表現良好甚至最佳，從而確定其投資機會。此外，通過將ESG因素系統地及明確地納入財務分析，投資者可將ESG納入投資流程，從而作出風險和回報評估。
3) 負面/排除篩選和正面/最佳等級篩選
資產經理和資產擁有者可透過多種方式將ESG納入投資流程。一些人可能會積極尋求將具有更強ESG政策和做法的公司納入其投資組合，和/或排除或避免ESG往績差的公司，又或排除某些行業（如煤礦、煙草）或用類似做法進行篩選。
4) 影響力/社區性投資
在ESG投資領域中，影響力投資是指針對解決社會和環境問題的投資，例如社區性投資（資本針對服務不足的社區）。這包括將資金調配到傳統上欠缺服務的社區，或為具有明確社會或環境使命的公司融資的社區性投資。
5) 可持續發展主題投資
這個策略涉及選擇與可持續性特別相關的資產，以及選擇有助於應對社會和/或環境挑戰（例如氣候變化、生態效率與健康）的投資，尤其是針對這些挑戰的具體解決方案，譬如能確保糧食安全和營養的可持續林務及農業、食水處理和廢水再用處理、節約能源及保健產品。以上這些都能提高治療各種問題和包容性融資的成本效益。
6) 企業參與及持分者行動
最後，利用股東權力影響公司和管理層行為，及直接與高級管理層和/或組織董事會直接溝通，從而影響企業行為。持分者參與至關重要，因為股東可以利用多種方式來影響公司和管理人員負責任投資的行為，方法包括股東決議、周年大會（AGM）、媒體宣傳活動，以及股東與管理團隊之間的私下談判。
There is no doubt that interest in ESG is on the rise. Nowadays, investors have been taking an avid interest to integrate financial valuation with environmental, social and governance criteria in selection and management of assets. Particularly, investors are interested in evaluating how ESG can be fully integrated into investment process and demanding analysis of ESG factors to identify change and fulfil the potential for accelerating returns. In order to achieve that, investors can apply different strategies to fully integrated ESG into their investing process: 1) Norms-Based Screening; 2) ESG Integration; 3) Negative screening and Positive/ Best in Classes Screening; 4) Impact/ Community Investing; 5) Sustainability-Themed Investing; and 6) Corporate Engagement and Shareholder Action.
ESG Investing Strategies
1) Norms- Based Screening
In the ESG world, Norms-based Screening means to investigate the compatibility of potential investments and global norms as climate protection, human rights, working condition and action plans against corruption, screening against minimum standards of business practice based on international norms, such as those issued by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), International Labour Organisation (ILO), United Nations (UN) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). This strategy assesses corporate conduct in relation to standards and rules laid out by those international conventions.
2) ESG Integration
ESG integration is to incorporate ESG factors to benchmark companies against peers or to identify companies selected for positive ESG performance with good track record or the best ones in terms of investment opportunities based on ESG issues. Moreover, investors can also integrate ESG factors into the investment process through systematic and explicit inclusion of ESG factors into financial analysis, as part of a wider evaluation of risk and return.
3) Negative / Exclusionary Screening and Positive/ Best in Classes Screening
Asset managers and asset owners can incorporate ESG issues into the investment process in a variety of ways. Some may actively seek to include companies that have stronger ESG policies and practices in their portfolios, and/or to exclude or avoid companies with poor ESG track records or to exclude certain sector (i.e. coal mining, tobacco) or similar practices.
4) Impact/ Community Investing
In the ESG investment sphere, impact investing means targeting investment aimed at solving social and environmental problems such as community investing (capital directed to underserved communities). This includes community investing, where capital is deployed to traditionally underserved communities, or financing to companies with explicit and clear social or environmental mission.
5) Sustainability Themed Investing
This strategy relates to the selection of assets specifically connected to sustainability, picking investment which contributes to addressing social and/or environmental challenges such as climate change, eco-efficiency and health, particularly, in specific solutions to those challenges, such as sustainable forestry and agriculture for food security and nutrition, treatment of water and wastewater for reuse and energy conservation, health products for improving health outcomes for raising the cost effectiveness of therapies and inclusive finance.
6) Corporate Engagement and Shareholder Action
Last but not the least is the use of shareholder power to influence corporate and managerial behavior and to influence corporate behavior through direct communicating directly with senior management and/or boards of organisations. Shareholder engagement is vital as there are different methods at shareholders’ disposal to influence corporate and managerial behavior of investing responsibly, including shareholder resolutions, Annual General Meeting (AGM)s, media campaigns, private negotiations between shareholders and management teams.
