This blog was going to be about one thing but given the rapid pace of events, I have decided to pick something else up. WEF’s great big reset can wait.

I started looking into responsible investments before I came across the piece in the Economist, ‘The trouble with green (climate) finance’.

We have all been brain washed during lockdown into believing that big investors will rush to our rescue and save the economy and save the climate. We have also been told that every clued-up company on earth has been doing scenario planning for the past few weeks in the absence of clarity on the crystal ball.

So, private capital might still deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals, advance net-zero, deliver equality, align investment outcomes with the SDGs, etc. This might still happen. After all, the Economist said that ‘judged by today’s fundraising bonanza and the solemn pronouncements by institutional investors, bankers and regulators, you might think that the industry is about to save the planet’.

After all, the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) has recently released a Sustainable Development Goals five-step framework to support investors in creating investment outcomes that are aligned with the UN goals.

This should come as little or no surprise to those who know the investor organisation. PRI has $89trn (€78trn) in assets managed by its signatories, who have registered an increase mentioning the SDGs in their reporting, with 650 in 2020, compared to 418 in 2019.

Investors have come to realise that supporting the SDGs, will increase the positive outcomes and decrease the negative outcomes of their actions.

Focusing on SDG outcomes will also help investors. It will help them prepare for and respond to legal and regulatory developments, including those that may lead to asset stranding.

This is because older assets face more complex interventions in reducing carbon emission intensity and will require more invasive retrofit. It is often the case that these older assets are less efficient and logistically and economically challenging to replace or revamp.

In addition to asset age, asset footprint is also a factor for global investors. Investors will have to start examining geography, geopolitics, and as we have witnessed recently, health pandemic footprints, to reduce exposure to potentially stranded assets.

The Economist reported this week that green finance suffers from ‘woolly thinking, marketing guff and bad data’. We are here to help. We offer systems thinking, credible engagement and unparalleled data capabilities. Time for the two industries, finance and built environment to play more together. Let’s open the schools!