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The Story of Money

4 - Inside ESG: Sustainable finance and the threat to divest

The Story of Money

Manuela Saragosa

Business, Crypto, Markets, Finance, Banking, Investing, History, News

4.4400 Ratings

🗓️ 20 October 2021

⏱️ 26 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

If you want your investments to match your principles should a threat to divest be part of your long-term strategy?

 

In the fourth episode of our special five-part series on sustainable or ESG investing, produced in partnership with the FT’s Moral Money team, the story of the California State Teachers' Retirement System, or Calstrs, and why its decision to divest from the US private prisons industry prompted tears and passionate discussion on the board.


Joe Rennison, deputy US markets editor, assesses the long-term impact that divestment can have on companies, while Moral Money’s Patrick Temple-West, Attracta Mooney, the FT’s investment correspondent, and Lindsay Frost, a senior reporter at Agenda, an FT publication about the corporate board space, explain why divestment presents a conundrum for investors and whether passive investment funds are really compatible with ESG investing. 


JPMorgan funds invested in CoreCivic debt after vow to stop financing private prisons

Bond funds wrestle with human rights dilemma

Divestment Concerns Creep In for More Industries


Check out stories and up-to-the-minute news from the Moral Money team here


Get 30 days of the premium Moral Money newsletter free, together with complimentary access to FT.com for the same period, visit www.ft.com/insideesg


Review clips: Calstrs, NBC, Global News, PBS, AP, CBC News, The Guardian, CSPAN


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:03.2

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0:08.3

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0:15.8

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0:18.0

See what adding futures can do for you at CMEgroup.com slash podcast.

0:23.2

Derivatives are not suitable for all investors and involve the risk of losing more than

0:26.3

the amount originally deposited and any profits you might have made.

0:29.0

This is not a recommendation to offer to buy, sell, or retain any specific investment or service.

0:36.7

Ideally, we should not let emotions determine how we look at our investments.

0:46.2

But it's pretty hard to separate that.

0:49.4

That's Dana Dillon.

0:50.7

She's a retired teacher.

0:53.0

She was also, for many years, a member of the board of the

0:56.1

California State Teachers Retirement Fund, or Colsters, as it's called. And as a member of the board,

1:02.2

it was her job to help decide which assets to hold in Calster's investment portfolio.

1:08.4

But the things that have come to the board have all been in one way or another emotional

1:14.3

for me.

1:16.7

Dana struggled with one particular investment.

1:20.0

And as you can tell, even now, several years later, she still gets emotional about it.

1:25.7

But then the drama that surrounded it sums up one of the biggest dilemmas for those trying

1:30.7

to invest along sustainable or ethical lines.

1:34.6

Namely, should you engage with a company and try and change it or just sell out?

...

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