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Tracking ESG performance requires research and teamwork.
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The ESG investing trend continues to sizzle. More than $17 trillion—or nearly one in three dollars of the total U.S. assets under professional management—is invested in assets that follow ESG principles, according to the U.S. SIF Foundation.
“ESG” means investing in companies that try to operate with high standards of environmental, social, and governance criteria. This might mean a company limits its impact on the environment or advances social causes. An ESG-focused firm might emphasize hiring locally or have a diverse board of directors. Basically, the companies claim they’re trying to make the world a better place. The jury is still out on whether they succeed.
Key Points
- ESG investing lets people put their money behind social issues that matter to them.
- ESG investing requires due diligence to avoid “greenwashing.”
- Some studies show ESG fund performance as being on par with non-ESG focused benchmarks, but it’s complex.
It’s easy to understand why ESG is popular with investors, especially women and millennials. There’s allure in matching your personal values with your investments. It’s important to remember, though, that this is still investing. Traditional financial metrics need to play a role in your strategy.
What should I look for in ESG investments?
If you use exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds, read fund mandates to understand how they choose investments and whether they are passive index funds or actively managed funds. Generally, a fund should invest at least 80% of its assets in the type of securities that are related to its name. A clean-energy fund should invest in renewable energy; a fund that invests in gender diversity on corporate boards should state that. Look for this information on a fact sheet and find details in a fund prospectus.
For individual companies, gauge their dedication to sustainability by reading the corporate responsibility statement and finding out whether they spend their money on research or operations. The statement should be easy to find on the company’s website.
You also need to decide what’s important to you. Do social issues mean more than environmental or governance issues? No company is perfect, and you may need to prioritize the E, the S, and the G. For example, a mining company might have a well-managed board of directors and may employ local residents in a remote location, but its business model is extracting metal, which causes environmental damage. Do the social and governance issues outweigh the environmental ones? This can be difficult to determine.
It’s even tough for the pros. An energy company that makes its money drilling for fossil fuels might be ESG-approved if it ticks all the boxes, whereas a maker of electric cars might be removed from consideration due to corporate governance challenges (yes, both have happened).
How can I spot greenwashing?
Is a company really as “green” as it says? You might see advertisem*nts or articles from a CEO promoting the firm’s dedication to environmental sustainability, but spending on promotion is different from actually supporting the green cause. When a company spends more to market its green initiatives than it spends on rainforest planting or species preservation, that’s called “greenwashing.”
Regulations against greenwashing have yet to appear. In the meantime, look at a firm’s disclosures on operations ESG risk and how it’s managing those risks. An e-commerce company may have low carbon emissions, but check how they manage energy consumption, customer privacy policies, and product design and lifecycles. At a minimum, funds should have criteria surrounding what companies they include or exclude in line with their investment mandate.
How have ESG investments performed?
Independent research from firms like Morningstar have shown that, as a whole, ESG investors don’t lose on performance when they invest according to their values. Many ESG funds take a long-term approach and choose high-quality companies they expect to outperform over time. However, as with any investment, it depends on market cycles and holdings.
ESG funds trailed the broader market in the first half of 2022, for instance, because they usually are underweight (less invested) in the fossil fuel energy sector and overweight (more heavily invested) in technology. When oil is rallying and technology falling, which is what happened in early 2022, ESG investments often lag.
If an ESG fund owns fossil fuel companies, is it really ESG?
It’s a matter of opinion. Some funds refuse to own any fossil fuel producers or utilities that use fossil fuels. But some utilities are transitioning to renewable energy sources as they curb fossil fuel consumption. Also, some actively managed funds own utilities or fossil fuel producers to specifically engage with them and advocate for a faster transition to renewable energy or pollution mitigation. Looking at a fund’s mission and its holdings will give you clues about why a fossil fuel company might be included in a fund’s portfolio.
Some ESG index funds, in an attempt to replicate the broader market, take a “best-in-class” approach where they own the companies with the best ESG scores from every stock market sector. That will often include “dirty” sectors such as energy or industrials. Whatever the scenario, investors need to decide whether those holdings are OK for them.
Has ESG investing caused energy prices to rise?
Although ESG investing generally shuns the traditional energy sector centered on oil and gas, many funds still invest in these companies. The energy sector of the S&P 500 Index rallied sharply in early 2022, implying that plenty of Wall Street money continues flowing to fossil fuel giants.
Additionally, the cost of renewable-sourced energy has fallen below that of coal, meaning that to some extent, market forces, not ESG investing, are behind the transition to renewables. Even with ESG funds shunning oil companies, U.S. oil production is still rising. High energy prices are a matter of consumer demand and producer supply.
The bottom line
ESG investing is nuanced and takes more due diligence than buying a simple low-fee fund that tracks the S&P 500. Because it is values-based, what ESG investment means will vary from investor to investor.
