Shortlisted for Better Society Awards 2020
We are delighted to announce that Castlefield has been shortlisted for this year’s Better Society Awards, organised by the Better Society Network. The purpose of the awards is to recognise and reward companies who are working towards a more equal and sustainable society. The winner will be decided by an independent panel who will judge the finalists by their positive influence on society. This year we are finalists in two categories - the Green Finance Award and Good Money Award.
The application process involved a detailed 1,000-word submission for each category evidencing our commitment to achieving a better society. The Green Finance Award is seeking to recognise companies that are helping to open up responsible finance, either by providing finance for ESG projects or changing their investment strategies to reduce their damaging impact. To this end, in February 2018, we launched the Castlefield B.E.S.T Sustainable Portfolio Fund. We created this fund because we noticed a lack of options for investors wanting a single solution whilst investing responsibly and sustainably. This fund is especially attractive to investors with smaller asset pools who perhaps cannot afford the costs of financial advice or discretionary management. The fund also works for investors looking to put their money to work across asset classes, secure in the knowledge that their assets aren’t supporting unpalatable companies/industries. We are continually looking at ways to open the market to people who may have not considered investing as a viable option.
The Good Money Award is appraised on the way in which an organisation incorporates ethics into all areas of business conduct, but especially on how it is providing ethical finance. Over the last two years, we have transitioned two of our funds to fit under our sustainability umbrella. The ‘B.E.S.T Sustainable’ process applies a ‘blended’ approach which combines negative screening principles whilst also considering positive sustainability trends and companies involved in developing and delivering sustainable products and services. The first of these was the Castlefield B.E.S.T Sustainable UK Smaller Companies Fund. We believe this to be the only one in its sector with an explicit sustainability mandate. More recently, we have transitioned our UK Opportunities Fund into our Castlefield B.E.S.T Sustainable range. This now means that all of our single-strategy equity funds are under the ‘B.E.S.T Sustainable’ banner, enhancing our offering for investors who wish to reflect their values in their investments. Worth special mention, is that at Castlefield all members of our Investment Management team are integrated into every aspect of the investment process, with no distinction made between financial analysts and ESG analysts, as we believe that this inherently risks creating conflicts of interest. Clients can therefore be assured our interests are aligned, which, we believe, helps set us apart from most other investment managers.
This marks the 6th Annual Better Society Awards which are to be held on the 14th May 2020. We are immensely proud to have been recognised as being at the forefront of thoughtful investing within the asset management industry. After all, this is why we are known as ‘The Thoughtful Investor’.
For more information on the awards please follow the link to the Better Society’s website: https://bettersociety.net/awards/shortlist20.php
Chloe Smith- February 2020
Information is accurate as at 21.02.2020. Opinions are a matter of the author’s judgement as of this date and are subject to change without warning.
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