ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores how sustainable investing could become a means of solving a variety of dire, urgent problems, and in a positive way for all stakeholders. Recent decades have seen global wealth continue to coalesce at the top, resulting in levels of global inequality that are a severe barrier to economic vitality. Corrupt practices have always been a risk to the well-being of corporate and governmental bodies anywhere in the world, as well as to the communities they serve, reaching all the way back to the first public company, the British East India Company. Across environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, it is the environmental reality that is most dire. Drastic action is needed to avoid a variety of future problems, most especially climate change from accumulated greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, and adequate fresh water for increasing global populations.
