UN responsible investment body brings in Lansons

The Principles for Responsible Investment Initiative (PRI) has appointed the agency to provide strategic comms advice following an six-way pitch process.

PRI aims to foster the development of a more sustainable global financial system by highlighting the relevance of ESG (Environmental, social and corporate governance) factors for the world's asset managers and pension funds as well as encouraging the adoption of these issues into their investment decisions.

In less than seven years since its creation, over 1,000 investment institutions managing around US$30trn of investments have become signatories to PRI's six principles.

Lansons will report to recently appointed head of comms Matthew McAdam to advise PRI on a global basis. The brief includes supporting PRI's participation in Rio+20 conference on sustainable development in June.

The Lansons team is led by chief executive Tony Langham and associate director Charlotte Collins-White.

The Principles themselves were devised by the global investment community in 2005 after the then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan invited a group of the world's largest institutional investors to help develop new standards.

The organisation is principally based in London, with offices in New York and across the globe.

This article was first published on prweek.com