Liz Simmie - A True ESG Manager

Liz Simmie is the Co-Founder of Honeytree Investment Management, a firm that lives ESG investing. See the end of this description for Liz' official bio. In this episode Liz Simmie stops by The Business Brew to talk all things ESG. Unlike many "ESG" managers, Liz actually practices what she preaches. Said differently, Liz is the real deal and doesn't just use ESG as a marketing tool. The catalyst for this conversation was Bill thinking about morality in investing. On one hand, owning assets one is proud of seems like a reasonable goal. On the other hand, how do we draw the lines? If cigarettes are bad then why is sugar OK? If tobacco is bad why is alcohol OK? We cover a wide range of topics including: - how ESG is bastardized due to marketing - what real ESG investing looks like - why ESG is as important to Honey Tree - gender and racial diversity driving positive financial outcomes - issues preventing companies from embracing ESG policies - and much more. Bill's biggest takeaway was that ESG can provide a qualitative advantage for investment analysis. We are grateful for Liz' time and hope you enjoy the show. Thank you for listening! Bio: Liz is the co-founder of Honeytree Investment Management, an asset management firm focused on responsible growth, based in Toronto. Together with the team she manages Honeytree’s concentrated active investment strategies for institutional and private clients. Honeytree believes what is traditionally seen as ‘ESG’ data is just as important to assessing a company’s long term growth and risk as traditional fundamental data – and they integrate them both equally in our investment process. Honeytree is proud to be one of the handful of female led responsible asset management firms globally leading the conversation. Prior to founding Honeytree she worked at Bristol Gate Capital Partners a leading active management firm, and before that she worked in quantitative market research for Ipsos. Liz has BA in Economic Statistics and History.