Over the past two decades, investor demand for firms’ non-financial information, particularly Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) data, has surged. This has led to the emergence of numerous ESG rating agencies, which assimilate and transform complex, non-financial disclosures into more …

ESG ratings play an important role in helping companies and financial institutions integrate sustainability into their decisions. Yet critics argue that regulations are needed to address the ratings’ many shortcomings: a lack of transparency in the methodologies behind them, the …

In recent years, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) themes have taken center stage in the business world. As of  October 2022, 8,000 firms globally have aligned themselves with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Race to Zero campaign, …

While environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings provide useful information to  stakeholders, it’s unclear whether firms care about them. On the one hand, ESG activities may not align with the traditional goal of maximizing shareholder wealth. Further, ESG ratings often …

CEOs and institutional investors have increasingly embraced Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations and used them in deciding where to invest. According to the Sustainable Investment Forum, the value of U.S. sustainable assets rose from $6.6 trillion in 2014 to …

It is a common refrain, mostly on the political right, that considering environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) factors when investing is probably illegal.[1] The basis for this argument derives from the fiduciary duty of loyalty and its corollary, the …

Investors are increasingly concerned about a company’s social and environmental impact, but that impact is not as easily assessed as the company’s financial performance, which can be summarized by its “bottom line” (net income) or its stock return. To help …

The steady growth of sustainable finance in recent years poses difficult questions on how regulators should approach it. In the European Union (EU), for example, there has been an explosion of new rules aimed at addressing a broad array of …

One of the hottest topics in the business world is ESG ratings, which are designed to measure the environmental, social, and governance risks of a company. The idea is that increased transparency about companies’ ESG risks will motivate those with …

The value of an investment is no longer just about financial returns. A growing number of investors and other corporate stakeholders are calling for their money to go toward stocks or funds that are both profitable over the long term …