28 January 2019
Madrid Headquarters
Fernando Gómez-Bezares, Professor of Finance at Deusto Business School, took part in a roundtable entitled "Sustainable Investment as a lever for climate contribution", organised by Spainsif on 9 December 2019 as part of COP25, at IFEMA, Green Zone, in Madrid. "At Deusto Business School (DBS) we have been researching on business sustainability and sustainable investment for years. Without a doubt, boosting investment in sustainable activities is a powerful lever to promote sustainability in general and avoid climate deterioration in particular," said Professor Gómez-Bezares.
In this regard, all Spainsif members are working along these lines. Specifically, Deusto is devoted to teaching, dissemination and research to raise awareness in society and facilitate the work of investors who want their investments to be respectful of the environment, take care of their stakeholders and have good corporate governance.
Fernando Gómez-Bezares has no doubt that sustainable investment will grow in the future since there is growing evidence that it is just as profitable as non-sustainable investment, and that it reduces risk. "Both things are perfectly reasonable: sustainable companies will build more loyalty among their stakeholders, they will have a better reputation and will be more innovative... and all this will improve their average profitability; on the other hand, they will avoid environmental, social and other risks. Sustainable businesses will be more financially attractive. However, there is also a social clamour for sustainability, especially with regard to climate change, which will end up punishing non-sustainable ones.
In his view, the concept of sustainable investment needs to be better defined; the definition of investment as sustainable has lacked the necessary rigour so far. The EU Taxonomy or Green Bond Standard is precisely along these lines, but some things need improving. Thus, he pointed out that we should go further in measuring social impact (exaggerated pay gaps in so-called sustainable companies, aggressive tax avoidance, increased lawsuits...) or in the quality of corporate governance, with internationally accepted standards. He also referred to the need to improve the study of disputes and their effect on sustainability.
The Deusto Professor added that it is also fundamental to work on the materiality of investments in sustainability; thus, for banks, the most important thing can be to direct their loans towards sustainable investments, while for energy-intensive industries, the fundamental thing is to seek sources of clean energy. "We cannot afford to continue environmental deterioration, nor the economic exclusion of a large part of humanity. SRI must be a lever, not the only one, to advance in this direction," he concluded.
