Specialist body for ESG research
The ESG Research Australia initiative to encourage stock brokers to use this type of research plans to form an association, HESTA Super Fund executive manager investments and governance Rob Fowler said.
We are in the early stages of the development of the initiative and the next step forward will be to form an association,” he told the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI) conference in Melbourne on Friday.
The push to get stock broker analysts to use environment, social and governance (ESG) research is they have the highest level of contact with companies, Fowler said.
“So they need to ask about ESG and that will force companies to focus on the issue,” he said.
“So far there are only two brokers that are doing ESG research and they have specialist analysts to undertake the work.”
Fowler believes if broker clients ask for ESG research and pay for it, the uptake will be quicker.
“What drives brokers is the hip pocket so one of our initiatives is to get recognition of broker research,” he said.
“We believe those fees will drive the research.”
The initiative plans to create a set of awards to recognise broker expertise in this area.
“The response to the initiative has been good from the broking community,” Fowler said.
“We have also been concentrating on more super fund members and the response has been good, but we want more members from that sector.”
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