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Sustainable Development: Commitment to the long term

Broadly speaking, sustainable development seeks to relieve poverty, create equitable standards of living and satisfy the basic needs of all peoples while avoiding irreversible loss to natural capital in the long run.

For investors, it's about balancing the financial benefits of equity and bond investment with companies' long-term environmental and societal impact; in other words, reconciling economic development with the regenerative capacity of the natural environment.

Many definitions of "sustainable development" exist, but the most commonly accepted and cited definition appeared in 1987 in the UN report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, "Our Common Future", also known as the Brundtland Report.

Here, sustainable development is defined as development that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs".

The idea of sustainability is sometimes refined further into "weak" and "strong" sustainability. There is also debate about the degree to which sustainability should be predicated on ecocentric or anthropocentric principles.

Sustainability, therefore, while a broad and comprehensive concept, is also a notoriously elusive one.

In line with Brundtland, Pictet defines sustainability as economic activity that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Our investment approach aims to meet our clients' financial objectives and their concerns about social, environmental and governance issues.

The United Nations lists the following areas, among others, as falling within the scope of sustainable development:

Agriculture
Biodiversity
Climate Change
Consumption and Production
Demographics
Desertification
Education
Energy
Forests
Health
International Cooperation
Oceans and Seas
Poverty
Sanitation
Technology
Toxic Chemicals
Trade
Waste
Water

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