34: What the Heck is ESG Investing with Liz Simmie

Today, Stephanie and Kevin sit down with Liz Simmie, Co-Founder of Toronto-based Honeytree Investment Management, which just so happens to be one of the very few women-led responsible asset management firms around the world.   Honeytree truly believes that ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) data is just as important to assessing a company's long-term growth and risk as financial data, and so they integrate both, equally. In other words, ESG is real investing! With the belief that, "ESG is a core function of the board and the management team and part of day-to-day operations in all aspects of the business," Liz tackles the all-too common pitfalls of ESG initiatives and by extension the usual criticisms that crop up against them. She paints a detailed picture of ESG done right and its resulting impact on an organization's long-term bottom line.   Values-aligned investing is a big topic for us in 2022, so we're excited to dive deep into the nuts and bolts of ESG investing with Liz!   Key Topics: Defining "ESG" (2:03) Liz's journey and Honeytree (9:05) Addressing greenwashing, pinkwashing, and other ESG stereotypes (15:40) "Both Canada and Europe are way, way, way behind the U.S. on workforce racial diversity disclosure." (23:35) The case for stakeholder-governed businesses (26:53) "We remember when ESG was SRI (Socially-Responsible Investing)…" (31:39) "We're whatever the opposite of activist investors are." (37:35) How to connect with Liz (41:50) Stephanie and Kevin's closing thoughts (43:38)   Resources Mentioned: Follow Liz on Twitter at twitter.com/LizSimmie Learn more about Honeytree Investment Management at www.honeytreeinvest.com.   If you like what you've been hearing, we invite you to subscribe on your favorite platform and leave us a review. Tell us what you love about this episode! Or better yet, tell us what you want to hear more of in the future. [email protected]    You can find the transcript and more information about this episode at www.takebackretirement.com.   Follow Stephanie on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn.  Follow Kevin on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn.