What does sustainable development mean? What responsibilities does it entail for investors? What are the risks and opportunities for companies? What role can pension funds and their policyholders play? To answer these questions and many others, Ethos has developed its own training programme on sustainable finance. It will be divided into several modules, the first of which is now available online free of charge. In the future Ethos will also propose webinars and workshops on specific topics.
Raising awareness of sustainable development issues is part of the Ethos Foundation Charter and has been at the heart of its activities since its creation in 1997. Today, with the launch of the first module of its new training programme dedicated to sustainability and sustainable finance, Ethos reinforces its commitment in this area.
These courses are aimed primarily at pension fund trustees, whether or not their organisation is a member of the Ethos Foundation, as well as beneficiaries and investment professionals responsible for managing financial assets. They are designed for all those who wish to learn more about sustainable finance, its issues, its challenges and the various approaches available today to invest in a sustainable and responsible manner.
While many boards of trustees are now aware that taking sustainability into account is an integral part of their fiduciary duty, their efforts to implement an ambitious strategy can be held back by a lack of knowledge of actionable approaches or specific misconceptions. Ethos' training programme aims to provide balanced and documented information to help investors better understand long-term challenges, different approaches to responsible investment, their relative strengths, weaknesses and impact, as well as current and future regulations.
“The aim is not only to promote responsible investment among our members and clients by offering them an education platform tailored to their needs, but also to empower members of civil society and the finance community by becoming a recognised partner in continuing education”, emphasises Cécile Biccari, who joined Ethos at the beginning of the year to curate and disseminate these training programmes.
The training programmes build on Ethos’ long-standing experience in promoting environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues in the world of finance, and particularly in the pensions sector, over the last 27 years. “The aims of the Foundation are to promote responsible investment and to foster a stable and prosperous socio-economic environment for the benefit of present and future civil society,” explains Vincent Kaufmann, CEO of Ethos. “We are therefore delighted to launch this programme today and hope that it will help accelerate our collective progress towards these goals.”
A modular, tailor-made organisation
Available free of charge from today on our website, the introductory module, which lasts around two hours, reviews the fundamental principles of sustainability and identifies the various levers available to investors. In addition to facts and figures, the course looks at the behavioural and psychological obstacles that tend to prevent us from taking action, and suggests strategies for overcoming them.
Over the coming months, four additional modules will examine how investors can align their investments with sustainability objectives and use their influence to promote sustainable development. Together with the introductory module, these modules on fiduciary responsibility, regulations, investment decisions and active ownership will form Ethos' core course on the fundamentals of responsible investment.
More advanced modules on specific themes linked to current developments (regulations, industry initiatives, new tools, etc.) will also be developed and will over time form a library of micro-modules from which users can draw according to their interests and needs. With this modular organisation, users can learn at their own pace, based on their role within their organisation and their existing level of knowledge.
