What goes into an MSCI ESG rating?
This week I want to give a brief overview of what goes into an MSCI ESG rating. All of this comes from public material from MSCI (you can see more detail here). MSCI is one of the many companies currently offering ESG ratings for public companies. According to MSCI, “MSCI ESG Ratings aim to measure […]
Throwback Thursday – COVID-19 and inequality
Hope you are doing well and staying safe. Welcome back to our brief thoughts on ESG. This throwback Thursday I want to go back to UN’s 2020 World Social Report and comment on how COVID-19 has changed the story, if it has changed it at all. In a year where social issues have become so central to both public and private […]
What are the main limitations and criticisms of ESG investing?
Hope you are doing well and staying safe. Welcome back to our brief thoughts on ESG. This week, I want to share some insights into what are the limitations and criticisms of ESG investing and ratings? First, are ESG branded investors truly committed to ESG? Not always, but the brand does seem to provide benefits. A recent paper […]
What’s the deal with materiality?
This week, I want to give a simple intro to materiality analyses or assessments and explain why they are important for companies who want to build their ESG strategy from scratch (or even improve an existing strategy). First, what is a materiality analysis? In a nutshell, it is the process of identifying and prioritizing the […]
Blackrock on resilience & Natixis’s latest investor survey
Hope you are doing well and staying safe. Welcome back to our brief thoughts on ESG. This week, I want to share a couple of interesting things that popped up in the ESG world this week. Blackrock on the resilience of sustainable investing In this report, Blackrock joins ranks with other investors who have been very […]
How does T. Rowe integrate ESG factors?
Hope you are doing well and staying safe. Welcome back to our brief thoughts on ESG. This week, I’d like to comment on T. Rowe’s most recent ESG report, which provides interesting insights into how an investor with US$1 trillion in assets under management and presence in 51 countries does ESG integration. For starters, it stands out […]
Measuring the S in ESG
Hope you are doing well and staying safe. Welcome back to our brief thoughts on ESG. This week, as social factors have gained importance within the ESG realm amid the pandemic, I would like to discuss how can you measure when a company has the right “S” strategy. As usual, the ideal world for investors is […]
Executive Compensation in the New Normal
Hope you are doing well and staying safe. Welcome back to our brief thoughts on ESG. This week I would like to comment on what investors across the globe are saying about executive compensation in the new normal (some info on this topic can be found here, here, here, here, or here). First, executive compensation has been subject to scrutiny for […]
The E, the S, and the G around the world on Earth’s Day week
Hope you are doing well and staying safe. Welcome back to our brief thoughts on ESG. This week, as we just celebrated the 50th edition of Earth Day, I am going to share some interesting ESG-related news from around the world. On the E: We have all read about it, but as data keeps coming, it is still […]
Will the ESG focus shift post COVID-19?
Hope you are doing well and staying safe. Welcome back to our brief thoughts on ESG. This week I want to touch on what may be the focus within ESG post COVID-19. In particular, are materiality matrices going to change? Is there any evidence of this in the materials for the upcoming proxy season? On the […]