2nd Annual Ethical Investment Seminar
We hosted our 2nd annual ethical investment seminar in Norwich in October and welcomed four speakers to entertain our audience and hopefully reinforce the many reasons why investors choose to invest ethically.
Triodos Bank The first speaker was Whitni Thomas from Triodos Bank. Whitni is part of the Triodos Corporate fund raising team based in London and together with her team is responsible for bringing interesting alternative investments such as the Greenwich Leisure and Golden Lane Housing bonds to a broader investor base. Spurred on by the success of previous fund raisings, Triodos have just announced a new bond offering to raise funding for an organisation called Thera. Details of this investment opportunity are now available so please contact us. The presentation was very positive and highlighted the wide range of organisations which benefit from funding and support from Triodos. They aim to invest deposits raised in the UK back within the UK and are totally committed to sustainability and promoting ethical businesses.
Alliance Trust A noticeable change of tone from Mike Appleby of Alliance Trust investments (ATI). Mike heads the Ethical Research Team and his presentation identified a number of the emerging trends which the team at ATI look to identify and positively back, with the aim of generating above average returns, from a focus on businesses which are on the right side of changing consumer/business needs. Examples from the presentation included falling sales of soft drinks as people become more health aware. Alliance Trust are one of the only ethical investment managers to publish a full list of every holding in every fund they manage.
EdenTree After a short refreshment break, Neville White, head of Ethical Research from EdenTree Investments (formerly Ecclesiastical) offered a ‘researchers’ perspective on ethical investment to contrast the fund managers’ insights provided by Mike Appleby. Neville outlined the ethical approach adopted by EdenTree which seeks to combine screening with voting and engagement to deliver a robust ethical investment proposition. EdenTree have a policy of voting on every AGM vote/resolution of every company that they invest into and they publish their voting records. We welcome this transparency as it helps investors to ‘validate’ the claims made by the fund managers and highlights the greater involvement of some investment managers in forging change within companies and organisations.
The Benjamin Foundation After 90 minutes of finance dominated presentations and discussions, Chris Elliott, head of Fundraising at The Benjamin Foundation provided the perfect antidote for the audience with a brief overview of the history of the organisation. Chris talked passionately about the work they do across Norfolk helping young people and their families during times of crisis. One of the reasons IE Ltd have become regular supporters of the Benjamin Foundation is we all have children of our own and we recognise how fortunate we are to have stable homes and families. We were pleased to make a £250 donation to The Benjamin Foundation to reflect the support of our clients and friends at this seminar and we have also hopefully raised their profile.
We hope those that attended enjoyed an informative afternoon and the opportunity to meet and talk to some of the people responsible for managing our money. It was very positive to hear about the good work being undertaken across the ethical investment industry on our behalf. If you would like copies of any of the presentations please contact Debbie via debbie@investing-ethically.co.uk
