Phoebe Stone (pictured) has been promoted to the newly-created role of chief sustainability officer at LGT Wealth Management to drive a more “interconnected approach” in reaching net zero across its own investments and operations by 2030 target.
Stone joined the firm in 2014 as portfolio manager and was promoted to head of sustainable investing in 2018. She also became head of intermediary investment services in 2022, alongside the head of sustainability role. Over the past six years she has built and run LGT Wealth Management’s sustainable investing client proposition, dedicated sustainable investment team, ESG integration and stewardship proposition.
In her new role as chief sustainability officer, Stone will expand over oversight to the entire business strategy and ensure every decision is embedded with a sustainability lens, and ensure the firm’s investments and operations meet the net-zero target by 2030.
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“I have been working with our CEO Ben Snee over the last couple of years on taking a unified and holistic approach, to really ensure that our sustainability goals are woven through each division,” Stone told PA Future.
For example, the company has grown from having three offices to seven offices, and part of her new role will be engaging with the local communities of these offices and looking at the physical infrastructure during any office refits.
“Over the past few months, I have been speaking to people around the business to do research for this role and there are some very exciting and inspiring projects are in operation but are perhaps below the radar.
“It’s a part of their day-to-day, so I will be amplifying these and bringing them together and help everyone in the business to understand.
“I will also be ensuring that our policies and procedures are appropriate given the industry we work in and ensuring we are able to deliver our sustainability strategy.”
Stone highlighted LGT’s net-zero strategy was set in 2021 and became carbon neutral in 2010.
“We pick targets and goals around reducing our environmental footprint across things like paper and energy consumption, we’ve got a specific focus on decarbonising portfolios and allocating more to climate solutions.
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“It’s also about enabling us in the UK to take a really pioneering position when there is a waning focus from some of our peers around sustainability. They see it as a bit of a distraction but we see it as absolutely core to the way our business is run, our ownership structure and our long-term approach. This is something that we’re increasingly seeing clients want.”
Stone also noted: “I think we are in a unique position, I believe we are one of, or the only wealth manager in the UK with the role of chief sustainability officer.
“My overarching goal is to drive forward our interconnected approach to sustainability, including heightened accountability for our own business practices and those of the companies in which we invest. Continuing to highlight the crucial role the financial sector can play in restoring and protecting our world is fundamental.”
CEO Snee added: “Chief sustainability officers are a rarity in wealth management, with sustainability roles too often seen as a niche area of the investment function. Our creation of a chief sustainability officer is part of our commitment to ensuring we are a firm that looks at our impact on the world in a much broader way, building on our reputation as early-adopters when it comes to sustainability.”
Meanwhile, Jordan Kelly, who has worked within portfolio management in the LGT Wealth Management sustainable team for the past five years, has been promoted to oversee sustainable fund, equity and bond research.
The firm said Kelly has been embedded in the research process since joining the firm in 2019 and has been integral to developing the sustainable asset selection approach, as well as generating sustainable investment ideas alongside Stone and the wider LGT Wealth Management research team. Kelly is also responsible for managing its Sustainable Portfolio Service.
This article first appeared on PA Future’s sister site Portfolio Adviser
