By Charlie Conchie
A group of top investors managing $5.7tn are mounting pressure on firms to boost their focus on public health today, amid fears it is sliding off the agenda as an environmental, social and governance (ESG) issue.
Thirty five money managers, including Legal and General Investment Management and Hermes Investment Management, have backed a new ‘Long-term Investors in People’s Health Initiative’ in a bid to strong-arm firms into improving the mental and physical health of “workers, consumers, and communities”, they announced today
Activist group Share Action – which has convened the investors – said today health has dropped off the ESG agenda, but it deserved a place next to climate as a fundamental to the health of the global economy.
“Economies depend on healthy populations just as they depend on a stable climate. Yet health remains an ESG blind spot for many investors,” group chief Catherine Howarth said in a statement.
“With the launch of Long-term Investors in People’s Health, we’re determined to change that. Health deserves to be at least as well embedded in mainstream investment practice as climate risk.”
Health has become a mounting concern for financial stability since the pandemic, as shuttered firms, snarled supply chains and labour shortages continue to stymie economic growth.
Consultancy firm McKinsey claimed that even prior to the pandemic, poor health cost the world $12tn – or 15 per cent of global GDP – in 2017.
ShareAction has already won concessions this year from consumer goods group Unilever over what it said was a lacklustre performance on the health of its products. The activist has also been demanding more firms commit to government-established standards on food health.
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