Process
Status Items Output None Questions None Claims None Highlights Done See section below
Highlights
id557159180
ESG is simply a risk management tool meant to increase companies’ profits, not make them act in accordance with higher social values.
id557159539
when the ESG rating agencies, including market leaders like MSCI and Sustainalytics, make their assessments, they don’t ask whether companies help or harm the world while managing ESG risks. Only the impact on the bottom line counts
id557159982
ESG overlooks tobacco’s lethality because it poses no risk to a company’s bottom line. Instead, the rating agencies look to other environmental and social risks that do have the potential for financial harm, like carbon pricing and water availability
id557096105
In the real world, financial and social interests often conflict—but ESG always resolves them in favor of corporate profits.
id557161629
defenders and detractors of ESG conflate it with “stakeholder capitalism”—the principle that companies should be run in the best interests of all their constituents including employees, customers, suppliers, and the community at large.
✏️ This is what people think ESG means.. That it cares about environment and social factors in his they affect the stakeholders (including customers).. But ESG is focused on financial outcome only. 🔗 View Highlight
id557162548
ESG is simply a reflection of “shareholder value,” the belief that the only social responsibility of business is to build its profits
id557162845
ESG paints an alluring picture of far-seeing investors solving environmental and social crises by directing capital to corporations that produce community benefits as a side effect of enhanced profitability. That is a dangerous fantasy.
id557163034
ESG doesn’t tame corporate profit-seeking, or impose social objectives on companies. It is only a name for risks that corporations will seek to manage in any case to protect the bottom line