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Category: ESG Ratings

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings and scores have become increasingly important worldwide as a basis for screening and evaluating sectors and companies for investment purposes with an increasing number of firms offering ESG data using data sourcing approaches and methodologies that vary considerably. Periodic ESG ratings related research articles focus on this evolving area of the sustainable investing landscape.

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Focusing on ESG ratings: A more active due diligence role for sustainable investors

The Bottom Line:  Scrutiny of ESG ratings identifies challenges and signals to investors to take an active due diligence role to understand their fund’s strategies. Sustainable investors should take on a more active due diligence role to understand the sustainable strategies pursued by their funds and ensure continued alignment with their sustainable investment preferences Financial […]

SRA Select Listing: ESG Integration Investment Funds-Q1 2022

Sustainable investors can establish cost-effective diversified portfolios of funds that pursue an ESG Integration investing approach aligned with their financial profile and risk tolerance (1). Summary Sustainable investors seeking to establish a diversified investment fund portfolio that pursues an ESG Integration investing approach, as defined and  based on the criteria set out below, should consider […]

S&P Global Ratings to issue ESG credit-related indicators

The Bottom Line:  S&P Global Ratings becomes the third credit rating agency to issue ESG credit indicators intended to inform the CRA’s assessment of creditworthiness. S&P Global Ratings becomes third credit rating agency to issue ESG credit-related indicators S&P Global Ratings became the third credit rating agency (CRA), after Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Investors, to […]

Environmental Rating System Proposal

The research paper entitled Environmental Rating System by authors Praveen Varma, Mark Gold and Henry Shilling proposes a globally consistent environmental rating system in which public companies are rated based on the amount of unremedied pollution they produce.  The objective of this rating system is to more fully account for externalities which are created when companies pass a portion […]

Research

Research and analysis to keep sustainable investors up to-date on a broad range of topics that include trends and developments in sustainable investing and sustainable finance, regulatory updates, performance results and considerations, investing through index funds and actively managed portfolios, asset allocation updates, expenses, ESG ratings and data, company and product news, green, social and sustainable bonds, green bond funds as well as reporting and disclosure practices, to name just a few.

A continuously updated Funds Directory is also available to investors.  This is intended to become a comprehensive listing of sustainable mutual funds, ETFs and other investment products along with a description of their sustainable investing approaches as set out in fund prospectuses and related regulatory filings.

Getting started

Many questions have surfaced in recent years regarding sustainable and ESG investing.  Here, investors and financial intermediaries will find materials that describe the various approaches to sustainable investing and their implementation.  While sustainable investing approaches vary and they have thus far defied universally accepted definitions, many practitioners agree that they fall into the following broad categories:  Values-based investing, investing via exclusions, impact investing, thematic investments and ESG integration.  In conjunction with each of these approaches, investors may also adopt various issuer engagement procedures and proxy voting practices.  That said, sustainable investing approaches will continue to evolve.

In addition to periodic updates regarding sustainable investing and how this form of investing is evolving, investors and financial intermediaries interested in implementing a sustainable investing approach will also find source materials that cover basic investing themes as well as asset allocation tactics.

Inesting ideas

Thoughts and ideas targeting sustainable investing strategies executed through various registered and non-registered sustainable investment funds and products such as mutual funds, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), Exchange Traded Notes (ETNs), closed-end funds, Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and Unit Investment Trusts (UITs). Coverage extends to investment management firms as well as fund groups. 

Independent source for sustainable investment management company research, analysis, opinions and sustainable fund disclosure assessments