With sea levels forecast to rise between 9 inches and 36 inches thanks to climate change, a severe storm could put substantial portions of Boston underwater by 2030 (dark blue), and even more by 2070 (light blue). Image courtesy of the BPDA

Environmental, social and corporate governance topics have become key concerns for investors and donors, said John Traynor, the executive vice president and chief investment officer at People’s United Bank, a concern that he has recently seen gaining momentum.

“In my career – I’ve been doing this for 35 years – I’ve never seen an investment conversation change so quickly,” Traynor said at a meeting of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce Tuesday. “But it’s resonating with everybody across the spectrum.”

Traynor was the keynote speaker and a panelist at a 2020 economic outlook discussion at the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce’s breakfast meeting on Jan. 14.

He said ESG issues come up in almost every conversation with investors at the Bridgeport, Connecticut-based People’s United. He said both individual and institutional investors want to know how ESG is reflected in their portfolios.

“There’s really been a sea-change – very, very rapidly, I believe – in the mindset of investors,” Traynor said. “We don’t meet with any of our nonprofit clients where it is not an issue, and even if it is not an issue for them, it’s an issue for their donors.”

Another panelist at the event, Northeastern University associate professor Alisha Sasser Modestino, said even though the issue of climate change had been known for decades, it has only recently become a top issue for businesses because it has started to affect the bottom line.

“You need to start protecting your investment, and that’s where business wakes up and starts to ask for change,” Modestino said. She added: “It’s been interesting how now business is leading the way ahead of government regulation in terms of climate change, but that is going to be the next biggest challenge to face us.”

The discussion of climate change was raised during a question and answer session following Traynor’s keynote address and a panel discussion with Traynor, Modestino and John Sackton, president of Seafood Datasearch and founding editor of SeafoodNews. The panel was moderated by Bloomberg anchor and reporter Janet Wu.

Vikki Spruill, president and CEO of the New England Aquarium, asked the question, noting that she was surprised the panelists had not discussed the impact of a rising ocean on business.

Traynor’s remarks came the same day BlackRock CEO Laurence Fink said in his influential annual letter to CEOs that his firm, which manages roughly $7 trillion for investors, will make a series of moves putting climate change and sustainability at the center of its investing approach.

Among them, BlackRock will cut out investments in some coal producers from some of its portfolios, sharply increase the number of sustainability-focused funds that it offers, and vote against companies at shareholder meetings when they’re too slow in disclosing and mitigating their impact on the environment.

“Climate change has become a defining factor in companies’ long-term prospects,” Fink wrote in his letter, adding that he believes “we are on the edge of a fundamental reshaping of finance” because of it.

Fink predicted that the changes in how capital is deployed will come “more quickly than we see changes to the climate itself,” and “sooner than most anticipate.”

Investors poured a net $20.6 billion into sustainable funds across the industry last year, nearly quadruple the record set a year earlier, according to Morningstar. Investors, particularly younger ones, increasingly say they want their money invested with an eye toward sustainability. The total dollars are still small relative to the entire industry – investors plugged a total of $413.9 billion into all taxable bond funds last year, while yanking $41.3 billion out of all U.S. stock funds – but the trend is clear and accelerating.

Stan Choe of the Associated Press contributed reporting.