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CSR Investing Summit 2018 to Update SRI

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The socially responsible investment landscape is changing quickly—it’s like a fast-motion film mounted on a moving truck viewed from a car traveling at high speed.

The unprecedented acceleration of interest year began early this year with the paradigm-shifting letter from BlackRock’s Larry Fink about the company’s new focus on social factors among the 4,000 companies in its portfolio as criteria for its investment. That announcement prompted Andrew Sorkin of the NY TimesDealBook to claim “[It’s] “a watershed moment on Wall Street, one that raises all sorts of questions about the very nature of capitalism.” Since then, the news has continued to deliver headline after headline that investment entities are stepping up their concerns about how values are affecting valuation. Products are proliferating—from green bonds to impact investments, asset managers are crafting new ways to respond to the growing demand for socially responsible investments from values-conscious investors. And a large majority of millennial investors are viewing potential activity through ESG-driven filters.

One of the best check-in/guides to these fast-moving changes in the sector is the annual CSR Investing Summit, “Summer in the City.” I have attended five of the previous six editions, and have found the event to be a concise, thought-packed, and insightful update to current and future practices and strategies.

The sixth edition takes place Wednesday, July 18th, in New York City. At the all-day conference, a select group of 150 expert practitioners—plan sponsors, endowments, consultants, academics, non-governmental organizations, the sell side, and media—will discuss how to define, manage, and measure responsible investing, now and in the future.

Among the topics to be covered are ESG data quality, how climate change risks will transform business, the valuation of diversity and inclusion, the forces of ESG and CSR in Latin America, and how the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are being linked to investor values.

Speakers will include professionals from Morgan Stanley, UBS, Pirelli, GRI, Deloitte & Touche, Gitterman Wealth Management, and the Inter-American Development Bank, among others.

 Yours truly will close out the conference by moderating a session titled“November 8, 2016 Report: How has socially responsible and impact investing changed since the 2016 presidential election?”, featuring panelists from UBS,  Pirelli, and Drexel University.

The event is produced by S-Network Global Indexes and sponsored by Thomson Reuters, the Inter-American Bank, and OppenheimerFunds.

Photo: CSR Investing Summit

For more info: click here.