Continued from page 10 Many investors now envision a different picture Compared with a decade ago, when a client’s for our future: a sustainable one, widely framed strategy may have focused on excluding certain through a combination of: types of companies or issuers from their • A global transition to a “net-zero” carbon investments, today’s clients want our help: economy (in which carbon dioxide emissions • Putting companies or issuers into context are reduced to as near to zero as possible and within a shift to a sustainable, low-carbon netted to zero with other processes) economy (as asset managers, strong active • Consideration of positive or negative stewardship plays a role here) contributions to the United Nations • Providing new investment solutions that allow clients to make conscious choices along this Sustainable Development Goals new dimension of investing We’re seeing this manifest now. A group of the world’s largest pension funds and insurance I believe that it will become normal for investment managers to show a fund’s or strategy’s ESG companies created the “Net-Zero Asset Owner characteristics, in the same way that food Alliance” in 2019. This group, collectively controlling more than $2.4 trillion in investments, companies show people the calories on the is committing to carbon-neutral portfolios by packages of food they buy. And, to use another 2050. Imagine—portfolios that will need net-zero food metaphor, many clients want a menu choice that includes an organic version. carbon investments! —Hannah Skeates Here at our firm, the WFAM Climate Change Working Group partners with analysts across the organization to take this top-down thinking and apply it to bottom-up, issuer-level opinions. It also helps us work with clients to address specific climate considerations they have for their investments. 27 2020