The Ivory Tower – With ESG Studies, the Devil’s in the (Data) Details
The body of research on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) scores and stock returns is large and growing. A search on GoogleScholar using that phrase shows that since 2018 alone, roughly 11,700 academic articles have been published on what ESG scores reveal about stock returns, or whether ESG scores have any consistent relationship with stock
Transparency Boosts Sustainability and the EU Leads the Way
Most of us would readily agree that Europe offers various things that are unmatched in other parts of the world – great cuisines, rich histories, beautiful villages – and, of course, precedent-setting guidance on sustainability reporting. Recently, the EU parliament adopted the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), with 525 votes in favor, 60 against, and
Alphabet Soup in the EU: PAI and DNSH in the SFDR
Every field, from accounting to sports to manufacturing, has its own vocabulary and acronyms that shorten otherwise cumbersome descriptions. If you know football, you know what a “Hail Mary” is – no need to explain. The sustainable investment field hasn’t been around all that long but it has already generated a rather impressive collection of
KPMG’s 2022 Survey of Sustainability Reporting
The KPMG Survey of Sustainability Reporting (the Survey) is one of the most comprehensive pieces of global research in the sustainability arena. First published in 1993, the Survey is produced every two years. In this article, we summarize some interesting findings from the 2022 report, titled “Big shifts, small steps.” The 2022 Survey analyzes Environmental,
Making Sense of ESG Data with Machine Learning
How’s this for stating the obvious: Understanding risks and analyzing opportunities requires data. It’s true for every business, and applies to financial risks and opportunities, product and market risks and opportunities, and ESG-related risks and opportunities. Another obvious statement: data is often difficult to gather, organize, standardize, and actually put to use in decision-making. Again,
ESG Reporting Standards: Is This Really Necessary?
Regulators and supranational standard-setters around globally are establishing requirements on the ESG data that companies must gather and how that information is to be reported. This is not a “woke” exercise—many accounting professionals believe that even traditional financial reports should include data related to ESG risks because they can impact the value of a company’s
Feedback on Proposed Sustainability Reporting Standards
The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) was established in 2021 to create the first mandatory, global ESG reporting standards. For those who are not yet convinced of the need for sustainability reporting, we borrow the following from the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) which states, “One of the essential functions of financial markets
ESG Investing, the SEC, and Fat-Free Milk
Here’s an update from the latest on ESG investing that falls under the category of “you probably heard about it, but just in case you missed it… ” The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed new rules that would require disclosures about investment strategies (mutual funds, ETFs, or other products) that claim to have
Tesla’s Removal Highlights Challenges of ESG Indices
In case you missed it, Tesla was recently dropped from S&P Global Inc.’s flagship ESG index, and Elon Musk, Tesla’s founder and chief executive, immediately and harshly criticized the decision. We write about this here not to argue for or against S&P’s action, but because we think it highlights some important issues about ESG scores
The Future of ESG Disclosures
The Financial Times’ Pensions-Expert website recently posted an article titled, “What does the future of ESG disclosure look like?” We think it’s a good question, given the range of regulations and standards on ESG disclosures in markets around the world, but the answer is not clear. What is clear is that pension fund trustees are
