Green Bonds – What They Do, and Evidence from Academia
Governments and corporations issue green bonds to fund projects with positive environmental impacts, such as developing renewable energy, improving energy efficiency, controlling pollution, providing clean transportation, constructing or retrofitting green buildings, improving wastewater management, and supporting climate change adaption. According to the Climate Bonds Initiative, annual issuance of green bonds more than tripled in the
The Relationship Between ESG and Bonds – A Quick Tour
The basic premise of incorporating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into an investment analysis is that an investment’s value can be affected (positively or negatively) by those factors. There are many reasons this makes sense, across all three pillars of E, S, and G, and volumes have been written on the topic. Just to
Does ESG live in a “Material World”? (sorry, Madonna fans)
When you read the notes to companies’ Annual Reports you will come across the concept of financial materiality. Should a company uncovers an error that caused it to misstate revenues, expenses, or valuations, if the amount of money involved does not exceed a certain threshold, it is not required to restate its financial results. Why?
Things To Know About ESG
ESG stands for environmental, social and governance
ESG Scores: Why Consensus-Based Scores Are the Best
Many institutional investors have stringent constraints regarding particular ESG metrics that call for tailored approaches to selecting Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs). When it comes to personal investors, most find generic ESG scores very helpful in comparing and selecting the right ESG ETFs. But what are ESG scores, who provides them, and which approach is the best? Keep
Greenwashing Litigation
Over the past couple of years, some well-known food and beverage companies and several large agriculture and food producers, have been sued in “greenwashing lawsuits”. In these legal actions, a company is accused of making false statements about its ESG practices, in an attempt to appeal to consumers who care about sustainable practices. The specifics
The Current State of ESG Maturity
When Tesla was dropped from S&P’s well-known ESG index, the move prompted more than just a few disparaging comments from Tesla CEO Elon Musk; it generated much discussion about the good, bad, and sometimes ugly state of ESG progress in different industries. ServiceNow (as discussed in this column in Forbes) sheds light on this issue
Cybersecurity and ESG: Think About It
Cybersecurity and ESG may not seem all that related, but if you take a minute or two to keep reading, we think you’ll see the connection, across all three pillar of E, S, and G. Before we get started, we note that this is just one example of how ESG research and analytics can help
Misconceptions About ESG Investing
For those who prefer “give it to me straight” over “beat around the bush”, we offer this opener from a recent article about misconceptions about ESG investing, published by GreenBiz: “The market demands ESG discipline, period. Whether you view ESG as the alpha and the omega, an opportunity for capitalism to atone and course correct,
ESG Case Study: Top 1000 Value Cap-Weighted, Filtered vs. Unfiltered
We’ve been doing case studies with a set of methods of applying ESG to various portfolios to see how they compare to the most common index weighting factor, market cap-weighting. If you haven’t been following along, visit our Insights page and look for the Case Studies graphic to see more. Meanwhile, check out today’s third study of
The Natural History of ESG
The investing world is fast embracing ESG data to inform investment decisions — likely because, as stacks of studies show, on the whole ESG scores are an indicator for performance. But what is this information? Why is it important? Where does it come from? Is all ESG alike? In short, how is ESG made? Don’t
Does ESG Have an Image Problem?
Uncover common misperceptions about using ESG data in investing in this insightful article by Chief Investment Officer.
