Following a request from the British consulate in Shanghai, Dr. Andreas Hoepner, Associate Professor of ICMA centre, Henley Business School, made a presentation of “Sustainability Investment” to Chinese regulators and business leaders at the Association of British Insurers, 8^th Oct 2013.

Ms Han Yi, Division Director of China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), lead the Chinese delegates from Shanghai Stock Exchange, China Universal Asset Management Ltd and AEGON-Industrial Fund Management. The audience also consisted of delegates from the United Nations supported Principles for Responsible Investment, and four PhD students of the ICMA Centre (Guan Huang, Qian Li, Rupini Rajagopalan, Xiaoyan Zhou), of which in particular Li and Zhou participated very actively in translating the context between Chinese and English.

During the presentation, Dr. Andreas Hoepner discussed the background of sustainable investment, the opportunities and challenges of promoting sustainable investment in China. Especially, the working paper co-authored by Michael Barnett, Xing Chen, Andreas Hoepner and Qian Li on investigating ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) issues and Chinese stock market draw audience special attention. Ms Han Yi praised this working paper by saying “your research is exactly what we have been endeavoured to do for the last ten years”. In addition, Ms Han Yi was keen to know more research about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) performance and share returns, and how to promote Social Responsible Investment (SRI) and CSR in China by using institutional investor ownership power.

Qian Li, whose PhD research underwrites this working paper, also discusses the event on her personal website: www.esgchina.org