Behind the Money

The amount of money flowing into investment funds that claim to invest in sustainable businesses has surged in recent years. More companies than ever have embraced policies with environmental, social and corporate governance criteria as their central plank. But there's a debate over what ESG investing can achieve, particularly when it comes to cutting carbon emissions and addressing climate change.In the final episode of our five-part series on ESG investing, we hear from two leading FT voices on opposite sides of the argument. Cheering the rise of ESG is Gillian Tett, the FT’s US editor-at-large and co-founder of Moral Money, the FT team that covers sustainable business and finance; and casting a sceptical eye is the FT’s US financial commentator Robert Armstrong, who also writes Unhedged, the FT newsletter on Wall Street.The ESG investing industry is dangerousTeam ESG fights backA carbon price should be top of the wish list at the climate talksThe need to elevate developing countries at COP26Check out stories and up-to-the-minute news from the Moral Money team here. Get 30 days of the premium Moral Money newsletter free, together with complimentary access to FT.com for the same period, visit www.ft.com/insideesg Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the podcast about doing work differently. Join host Isabel Berwick every Wednesday for expert analysis and watercooler chat about ahead-of-the-curve workplace trends, the big ideas shaping work today — and the old habits we need to leave behind. Subscribe on Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/working-it/id1591925469 - On Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/5vNDHxEOc1pI1acJS7He5e Or wherever you get your podcasts.The wellness industry is a trillion-dollar business, and the pandemic has turbo-charged it. One of the biggest trends has been the rise in employers buying their staff access to meditation and fitness apps. But does this ‘quick fix’ approach work? And are there better ways to boost wellbeing ? Isabel talks to Lorna Borenstein, chief executive of Grokker, a corporate wellness app about the reasons why she set up the platform and how clients and her own staff use it. It’s all part of a culture of taking care of employees - a topic Lorna has explored more deeply in her book It’s Personal, offering advice to other managers on how to help staff feel better [tl;dr: talk less, listen more].We also speak to FT colleague Emma Jacobs, about the corporate care culture. She is a little more skeptical. We would love to hear from you - email us at workingit@ft.com. You can also follow @isabelberwick on Twitter and Instagram or reach out via email: isabel.berwick@ft.com. Thanks. Mentioned in the podcast and other interesting reading:Emma Jacobs’ prophetic pre-pandemic guide to workplace wellness by app: https://www.ft.com/content/d1d58aae-437c-11ea-abea-0c7a29cd66feFT series, Burnout: https://www.ft.com/burnoutDeloitte report [2020] on employee mental health showing £5 benefit for every £1 spent: https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/consulting/articles/mental-health-and-employers-refreshing-the-case-for-investment.html  Video, Emma Jacobs on how to detox from your smartphone: https://www-ft-com.newman.richmond.edu/video/b4115321-b915-3a42-9814-ad0be4c0e7f5?playlist-name=section-0b83bc44-4a55-4958-882e-73ba6b2b0aa6&playlist-offset=206Presented by Isabel Berwick. Editorial direction from Renée Kaplan. Assistant producer is Persis Love. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. Produced by Novel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you want your investments to match your principles should a threat to divest be part of your long-term strategy? In the fourth episode of our special five-part series on sustainable or ESG investing, produced in partnership with the FT’s Moral Money team, the story of the California State Teachers' Retirement System, or Calstrs, and why its decision to divest from the US private prisons industry prompted tears and passionate discussion on the board.Joe Rennison, deputy US markets editor, assesses the long-term impact that divestment can have on companies, while Moral Money’s Patrick Temple-West, Attracta Mooney, the FT’s investment correspondent, and Lindsay Frost, a senior reporter at Agenda, an FT publication about the corporate board space, explain why divestment presents a conundrum for investors and whether passive investment funds are really compatible with ESG investing. JPMorgan funds invested in CoreCivic debt after vow to stop financing private prisonsBond funds wrestle with human rights dilemmaDivestment Concerns Creep In for More IndustriesCheck out stories and up-to-the-minute news from the Moral Money team here. Get 30 days of the premium Moral Money newsletter free, together with complimentary access to FT.com for the same period, visit www.ft.com/insideesgReview clips: Calstrs, NBC, Global News, PBS, AP, CBC News, The Guardian, CSPAN Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you want your investments to match your principles should a threat to divest be part of your long-term strategy? In the fourth episode of our special five-part series on sustainable or ESG investing, produced in partnership with the FT’s Moral Money team, the story of the California State Teachers' Retirement System, or Calstrs, and why its decision to divest from the US private prisons industry prompted tears and passionate discussion on the board.Joe Rennison, deputy US markets editor, assesses the long-term impact that divestment can have on companies, while Moral Money’s Patrick Temple-West, Attracta Mooney, the FT’s investment correspondent, and Lindsay Frost, a senior reporter at Agenda, an FT publication about the corporate board space, explain why divestment presents a conundrum for investors and whether passive investment funds are really compatible with ESG investing. JPMorgan funds invested in CoreCivic debt after vow to stop financing private prisonsBond funds wrestle with human rights dilemmaDivestment Concerns Creep In for More IndustriesCheck out stories and up-to-the-minute news from the Moral Money team here. Get 30 days of the premium Moral Money newsletter free, together with complimentary access to FT.com for the same period, visit www.ft.com/insideesgReview clips: Calstrs, NBC, Global News, PBS, AP, CBC News, The Guardian, CSPAN Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The story of how a tiny, unknown hedge fund took on a giant of corporate America over climate change - and won. Charlie Penner of Engine No 1 talks about the very public proxy campaign he launched against Exxon Mobil, forcing the oil major to prepare for a future free of fossil fuels. In the third episode of our special five-part series on sustainable or ESG investing, produced in partnership with the FT’s Moral Money team, Derek Brower, US energy editor, and Attracta Mooney, the FT’s investment correspondent, reflect on whether the battle between Engine No 1 and Exxon marks the beginning of a new kind of activist investor.Engine No 1, the giant-killing hedge fund, has big plansDWS probes spark fears of greenwashing claims across investment industryCheck out stories and up-to-the-minute news from the Moral Money team here. Get 30 days of the premium Moral Money newsletter free, together with complimentary access to FT.com for the same period, visit www.ft.com/insideesgReview clips: The Sun, Channel 4 News, Euronews, PBS Newshour, GMA, CNN, CNBC, ExxonMobil Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Milton Friedman, the renowned American economist and spiritual mentor of many entrepreneurs, argued that the social responsibility of business was to increase profits. This has been the gospel since the early 1970s, but companies and investors are beginning to rethink the purpose of business. Has the sun really set on the Miltonian era?In the second episode of our special five-part series produced in partnership with the Moral Money team, Leila Abboud, the FT’s Paris correspondent, and Gillian Tett, the FT’s US editor-at-large, tell the story of Emmanuel Faber, the former CEO of Danone who embraced environmental, social and governance (ESG) causes - and then was ousted eight years later. Turns out there was more to the story than first meets the eye.The fall from favour of Danone’s purpose-driven chiefCheck out stories and up-to-the-minute news from the Moral Money team here. Get 30 days of the premium Moral Money newsletter free, together with complimentary access to FT.com for the same period, visit www.ft.com/insideesgReview clips: CNBC, Danone, British Pathé, IMAGINE, France 24 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Tariq Fancy joined BlackRock as its first chief investment officer for sustainable investing in 2018, he was convinced that with companies around the world, including the world’s biggest asset manager, embracing environmental, social and governance (ESG) causes, the stage was set to reform capitalism. As a former Wall Street banker, he’d been hired by Blackrock after setting up his own digital learning non-profit group in Canada. But just two years after joining Blackrock, he left his job. So what went wrong?In the first episode of our special five-part series produced in partnership with the FT’s Moral Money team, Gillian Tett, the FT’s US editor-at-large, and Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, the FT’s US business editor, explore the idea that the trillions of dollars that have flowed into ESG investments represent a once-in-a generation shift in the business consensus. Can it be true that ESG investing can address some of the world’s most-pressing problems, including climate change and inequality?  Check out stories and up-to-the-minute news from the Moral Money team here. Get 30 days of the premium Moral Money newsletter free, together with complimentary access to FT.com for the same period, visit www.ft.com/insideesgReview clips: AP, KPIX CBS, CNBC, CNN, The Telegraph, PayPal Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Behind the Money presents a special 5-part series produced in partnership with the FT’s Moral Money team that goes inside the colossal sums flowing into sustainable investing.Trillions have flooded into funds that have made environmental, social and governance issues, or ESG, central to their investment strategies. As the world begins slowly to recover from the multiple shocks of the pandemic, we take listeners to the center of a loaded debate: Will a shift to more sustainable investments actually help create a more resilient and equitable future - or is ESG just a powerful marketing ploy?Check out stories and up-to-the-minute news from the Moral Money team on the whole world of socially responsible business, sustainable finance, and ESG trends here.Get 30 days of the premium Moral Money newsletter free, together with complimentary access to FT.com for the same period, visit www.ft.com/insideesg Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Introducing the FT Tech Tonic podcast. You can subscribe and listen to the rest of the series here.From picking the best stocks to listening in on earnings calls, AI-powered systems are changing finance. But how big are the rewards, really? And what are the risks? In this episode Robin Wigglesworth tells us how AI has been used in investing, what happens when programs must adapt to new risks and what the robots could learn from watching children play. Alice Fordham is senior producer. Josh Gabert Doyon is assistant producer. Oluwakemi Aladesuyi and Liam Nolan are the development producers. Sound design and mixing by Breen Turner. Cheryl Brumley is the executive producer for this series. Original scoring composed by Metaphor Music. Review clips: Alphabet, Netflix, Amazon, Man Group. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The City of London is home to some of the world’s biggest banks and busiest exchanges but the UK is just weeks away from leaving the EU single market and many questions about access to the bloc are still unresolved. Philip Stafford, editor of FT Trading Room, and Stephen Morris, the FT’s banking editor, take a look at the future of financial services after Brexit.Review clips: BBC News, CNBC, EU 27Read more on the FT’s coverage of Brexit here: Brexit trade talks: the three big sticking points explainedEurope’s finance sector hits ‘peak uncertainty’ over Brexit Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.