Double materiality, underlying ethical principles for investing, and performance

Professor Rodolphe Durand delivered the fourth lecture in the NBS-PRI-ECGI Public Lecture Series. In the lecture titled "Double materiality, underlying ethical principles for investing, and performance", he discussed how traditional investment rules often fall short because they succumb to an ‘ecological fallacy’ i.e. ignoring that there exist unintended effects of profit maximisation at the firm level that undermine the conditions for profit-making at the material, natural, and geopolitical levels. His lecture considered how investors could benefit from integrating indicators that account for the ways firms assess operational risks in liaison with the macro-level equilibria that these firms contribute towards. 

The lecture was moderated by Kenneth Ho, Head of ESG, Seviora Group and SeaTown Holdings.

The series provides monthly in-person or online public lectures. Each lecture will feature a leading academic to present cutting-edge research of a specific topic, and an industry expert to moderate the session, sharing insights from the field and also tailoring audience questions in a way to better enable bridging the gap between research and practice.