Home / Deeper Thought / Addressing Major Changes Relevant to Long-Term Responsible Investors

 As we settle into 2023, we believe long-term responsible investors focused on risk management and opportunity capture, must consider material changes impacting four areas: 

1. Changes to the global energy system, both in the existing fossil fuel system and in the development of a distributed, lower carbon system, are accelerating and revealing challenges for companies globally. 
2. Demographic changes continue to impact the workforce and the ultimate size of consumer markets globally; the vast majority of companies have yet to fully adapt to these massive changes. 
3. Increasing costs, including interest rates, wages and raw materials, present unique challenges to every industry; the result will be greater differentiation between companies that are able to manage their cost structure and improve productivity and those that are less efficient or stranded in high fixed cost models. 
4. New costs in the form of priced externalities, implemented by governments or through market action, are taking effect serving to raise costs, influence corporate and consumer behavior.