Investing the old-fashioned way, just by looking at a company’s financial statements and deciding how the current share price relates to the fair value of the stock, is so last year.

Instead, the most hard-headed commercially-minded asset managers are talking about a new form of investment process, including a checklist more usually associated with Greenpeace or Oxfam. Climate change, corporate responsibility, human rights – all these come under the banner of sustainable investment, and a broad range of industry participants have simultaneously come to the conclusion this is the way forward.