JP Morgan Asset Management has formed a leadership team to create a sustainable investing strategy and help clients achieve their environmental, social and government investment goals.

Called the Sustainable Investment Leadership Team (SILT), it combines senior leaders, portfolio managers and client advisers at JP Morgan AM and will be led by Jamie Kramer, head of strategic product management and environmental, social and government (ESG) lead for global investment management.

Commenting on the formation of SILT, Kramer said it will ‘bring together insights and best practices across investment capabilities.’

She added: ‘Formalising this global leadership team creates a driving force to shape and communicate our ESG capabilities around our clients’ needs.

‘With the proliferation of ESG data and tools in the marketplace, growing interest from investors, and the progress we are making through SILT, now feels like the right time to communicate our sustainable investment expertise with clients.’

It comes as JP Morgan AM has launched a Europe Sustainable Equity fund, which will try to seek out attractively valued European companies whose governance fosters a long-term sustainability view.

The fund is benchmarked to the MSCI Europe Index and managed by portfolio managers Richard Webb, Joanna Crompton and William Johnson.

Companies will be evaluated by their performance on material ESG issues, with the goal of the fund being to deliver strong risk adjusted performance with exposure to the most sustainable companies.

JP Morgan said the portfolio managers will engage in ‘active dialogue’ with the management of the companies they invest in to encourage them to become more sustainable.

Webb said: ‘Companies with effective governance and superior management of environmental and social issues tend to have better profitability, operating performance, and lower costs of capital than those who do not.

‘As active managers, we can help drive change by underscoring the importance of looking beyond quarterly capitalism to embed ESG considerations into corporate strategy.

‘Over time, our intention is to use targeted engagement… to help companies improve standards and practices to become more sustainable and ultimately create more value for shareholders, stakeholders and wider society.’