The pandemic has accelerated the urgency of ESG factors. Abbie Llewellyn-Waters, Jupiter Asset Management


without putting extra stress on companies, who say they are being asked for the same data by multiple users. We need a joined-up approach and a framework to get a consistency of disclosure from companies across the board.


Climate change was not pushed down the agenda because of the pandemic but we need to up the game on engagement with com- panies and policymakers to ensure change happens. Labour rights and human rights have been brought to the fore by Covid. Companies previously looked at those as a reputational risk to manage, but they should be treated seriously. Marshall: I am going to pick responsible technology. Going into the pandemic, valuations for technology stocks were stretched and the big tech names were dominating equity indices. This has been amplified further as the stay-at-home sectors have flourished. There is a growing appetite to regulate those businesses. In Aus- tralia and Europe there have been threats to force digital stocks to pay for content from journalists. There are anti-trust risks still in the system and long-standing concerns over data privacy with Joe Biden being less than 100% accommodative. So, the way we look at these companies from responsible conduct, content and ethics perspectives will be big this year as they are prevalent in our port- folios and their activities are so consequential that they present a systemic challenge. Jackson: The social impact of gaming and social media is an issue that has not been tackled. It is systemic because it can influence the way people understand or engage with broader ESG issues. Thankfully social factors have come to the fore following Covid-19


and I hope to see more focus on human capital management and human rights issues, including the living wage, executive remu- neration and of course, tax and transparency. Many of these issues have been highlighted because of the pan- demic. Government bailouts mean greater corporate responsibility expectations from stakeholders. As a result of Covid, I would like to see more thoughtful reflection about what we want to prioritise in 2021 and how we prioritise it. What world do we want to live in? Do we want it covered in con- crete with giant battery storage to meet net zero commitments and no biodiversity or a world which is well-resourced and beautiful? Hopefully, the theme for 2021 will be thinking about these things less in silos as: green or brown, good or bad, high carbon or low carbon and more about the world we want to live in and leave behind. Gamon: There is still a lack of understanding about fiduciary duty among trustees. The case law is also not helpful by constraining it to a narrow definition about the financials and risk. We can broaden that. A UN PRI study on these legal barriers is due out in the summer, so hopefully that will lift the lid on fiduciary duty and enable trustees to think about their investments, not just from a narrow financial perspective, but more about externalities like biodiversity. Lees: Millennials are value-led and their wealth is growing. In 2021, we will continue to see ESG ETF inflows amongst other things as there is a general shift to ESG. This is helped by regula- tion and the idea of investing beyond solely a financial perspective.


On the investment side, we focus on the E in ESG. It will be an interesting year for new ways to breakdown plastic more effectively, the growth of green hydrogen and sustainable agriculture. Electric vehicles and chargeable infrastructure will hockey stick this year as people underestimate the speed of adoption. More generally, 2021 will see a shift in awareness beyond just decarbonisation to broader ecological concerns, such as food, water, land and biodiversity. There will be an acknowledgment that these issues exist together and that ecosystems need to be regener- ated and restored. Burger: One of our seven core themes for the year ahead is the cir- cular economy. There is going to be a greater focus on that because of the internalising of costs and looking at things as a whole, par- ticularly around Scope III emissions.


Another element is human capital management, particularly in supply chains. The human rights abuses reported in China and Myanmar have come to the fore. Companies are starting to recog- nise the inherent risk that can sit within supply chains, particularly where they have sub-contracted suppliers in areas such as manu- facturing and pharmaceuticals, which is a sector that is often overlooked.


March 2021 portfolio institutional roundtable: Responsible investing 15


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