Claire discusses the Fearless Girl & investing live from Wall Street
In this edition of ‘Financially Fabulous with Claire’, Claire discusses the symbolism of the Fearless Girl statue on Wall Street and the importance of Corporate, Social and Governance issues when we invest for our clients.
Transcript from this “Financially Fabulous with Claire” video:
The term ESG refers to the Environmental, Social and Governance factors when measuring the sustainability and ethical impact of the companies we advise our clients to invest in.
Environmental factors include Climate change, Nuclear energy and Sustainability
Social factors include:
- Diversity and inclusion in a company’s recruitment and promotion policies, something the Fearless Girl highlights so well;
- Human rights such as the health and welfare throughout a company’s supply chain; and
- Animal welfare such as testing of products on animals
Corporate Governance factors include:
- Management structure such as composition and tenure of a company’s CEO, Chair and the Board of Directors
- Employee relations such as flexible workplace arrangements; and
- Executive compensation
At Quantum Financial we believe the three concepts of social, environmental and corporate governance are intimately linked to the concept of Responsible Investment.
We put this into practice for our clients through:
- Positive selection of ESG aware investments;
- Favouring exchange traded fund managers who use activism and company engagement to bring about positive change; and
- The exclusion of certain sectors or companies from investment consideration.
We all know the Wall Street is traditionally a world of men in ties. So I think it was wonderful when a little girl popped up in a place where no one could ignore her.
The Fearless Girl statue is a 130cm tall girl with hands on her hips and her chin up. She faces Wall Street’s famous Charging Bull, a much larger and heavier bronze statue that is an imposing 3.4 m tall.
Fearless Girl is brave, proud, and strong. She sends a positive message about workplace gender diversity and encourages companies to recruit more women to their boards. In my opinion, that can only be a good thing.
I think public advocate Letitia James put it best: “Fearless Girl stands as a powerful beacon, showing women, young and old, that no dream is too big and no ceiling is too high”
