By Darius McDermott, managing director of FundCalibre
The case for sustainable investment used to be self-evident. Long-term investors were aligning themselves with companies that were managed for long-term strength, rather than quarterly earnings numbers. These were companies that were using resources sustainably, treating their staff well, had control of their carbon emissions and made full use of the diverse talent available to them.
But the atmosphere has changed since the inauguration of Donald Trump. He has made no secret of his desire to ‘drill baby drill’, has rolled back on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and ditched the US’s climate commitments. Companies have followed suit, with Amazon, Disney, Google and Meta – among others – getting rid of their diversity programmes. In this environment, investing sustainably looks, well, naïve.
It…