Due consideration of risks and opportunities create value for shareholders and local communities alike. Research on the gold mining sector showed that miners gained financially if they had a track record of positive engagement with communities.

Indeed, the breakdown of relationships with communities have often resulted in mines being shutdown or crippled by production delays.

Non-financial indicators of success are not obvious, and environmental and sustainability issues can be hard to present in financial statements. That is precisely why they can be a crucial factor for active investment managers who know how to find and measure them.

The author is equity strategist of UBS Global Asset Management.