Professor Joakim Sandberg, co-director of Sustainable Finance Lab participated recently in the podcast ‘Ägarpodden’ which is run by the Seventh AP Found. The Seventh AP Fund (AP7-Fonden) is the state alternative to the private investment founds offered within the Swedish premium pension system, and as more than four million Swedes have their premium pension placed with the AP7 Såfa found portfolio they have stated that they view it as their responsibility to take measures which aid in the development of a more sustainable future. They recently invited Professor Joakim Sandberg to discuss the strategies asset managers may use to develop greater sustainability through the financial market. Joakim Sanderg, a professor in applied ethics and finance with experience in advising institutional bodies on these matters, spoke about the difficulty in determining how best asset managers should engage with sustainability.
Should one exclude stock companies which are unsustainable, make sure to include sustainable ones or try to transform currently unsustainable companies? It is important to understand that it is a scientific challenge to determine what cause of action has the greatest effect.
A scientific challenge that he as a researcher of SFL is currently working to solve. He further added that it is important to move away from the current situation where sustainability is understood as a very broad and vague concept, too often utilized simply as something which sells. To be able to truly identify and measure investments’ actual effect is an incredibly important milestone, which Sustainable Finance Lab has determined is a central and necessary step in achieving a real sustainable transformation of the financial market. Read more about the lab’s approach and research here.
It is vital to have a more scientific approach when defining what ‘sustainability’ entails and what effects investments bring, which is why we want to work to establish better and more comprehensive measuring tools.
To hear more from Professor Joakim Sandberg on this topic and his reasoning around the morality of sustainable finance and the role asset managers may play, please refer to the links below.
Here you can visit AP7’s website about the episode (in Swedish).
SoundCloud Link: Ägarpodden/Joakim Sandberg