Skip to content
Ken Pucker

Writer, Investor, Advisory Director, Berkshire Partners – Professor of Practice, Fletcher School Tufts University

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Business of Fashion
    • Harvard Business Review
    • Institutional Investor
    • Stanford Social Innovation Review
  • Media
  • Case Studies
  • Podcasts
  • TEDX
  • Home
  • Articles
    • Business of Fashion
    • Harvard Business Review
    • Institutional Investor
    • Stanford Social Innovation Review
  • Media
  • Case Studies
  • Podcasts
  • TEDX
  • Do you know what’s really in your ESG fund?

    The problem is “garbage in, garbage out,” said Kenneth Pucker, a director at Berkshire Partners who teaches at Tufts University. “The reporting is not complete, results are mostly unaudited, and they are not comparable.”

    https://www.courthousenews.com/do-you-know-whats-really-in-your-esg-fund/

    Read More
  • Sustainable Funds Face Big Challenges. Only Some Will Be Winners

    “On a relative basis, flows to ESG funds remain healthy, as compared to traditional funds. So one could say that from the asset managers’ perspective, the ESG model isn’t broken.  Actually, its proven very resilient,” says Pucker, who has written extensively on ESG investing. “From the perspective of the planet, ESG is almost irrelevant.  And from the perspective of the individual or institutional investor who thinks they are getting either alpha impact, I would argue it is broken.”

    https://www.barrons.com/articles/sustainable-funds-face-big-challenges-esg-winners-51672961981

    Read More
  • As Brands Lurch Towards Green Goals, a Booming Business of Climate Change Is Emerging

    ‘Sustainability has become big business,’ said Ken Pucker, senior lecturer on sustainable business dynamics at The Fletcher School at Tufts University.

    https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/as-brands-lurch-towards-green-goals-a-booming-business-of-climate-change-is-emerging/

    Read More
  • Resale Exploding Is Not an Automatic Win for the Climate

    More people are buying pre-loved items as they make greener choices, but there’s a long way to go to fix the fashion industry’s

    https://www.adweek.com/commerce/resale-exploding-is-not-an-automatic-win-for-the-climate/

    Read More
  • ESG investing faces challenges from all sides. Can it survive?

    The beleaguered environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment sector has taken a pummeling from all sides this year, most recently from a Republican-led offensive accusing $8 trillion asset manager BlackRock and other investment companies of hostility toward the oil and gas sector.

    https://fortune.com/2022/12/19/esg-investing-faces-challenges-from-all-sides-can-it-survive/

     

    Read More
  • Vanguard Splits from BlackRock Over Major Climate Alliance as the Backlash to ESG Grows

    Vanguard Splits From BlackRock Over Major Climate Alliance as the Backlash to ESG Builds

     

    Read More
  • Cracking Down on a Wall Street Trend: ESG Makeovers

    In recent years, financial firms have revamped dozens of mutual funds into E.S.G. dedicated funds — seeking to cash in on growing demand for such investments.

    Read More
  • Why Greenwashing Might Be Here to Stay

    Why greenwashing might be here to stay

     

    Read More
  • A broken system needs urgent repairs by Henry Tricks

    A broken system needs urgent repairs by Henry Tricks (The Economist)Thank you to the Economist for interviewing me for this piece. It is spot on. Speaking of ESG investing, the article notes “it has a negligible impact on carbon emissions, especially by the highest polluters. Its attempt to address social issues such as workplace diversity is hard to measure. As for governance, the ESG industry does a lousy job of holding itself to account, let alone the companies it is supposed to be stewarding. It makes outsized claims to investors. It just unmanageable demands on companies.” Not a great report card.

    All that said, diligence on non financial factors is a must for any sane 21C investor. To abet, reporting should be standardized and audited. Even so, it is unreasonable to expect that ESG investing will do much to advance planetary welfare.


    The environmental, social and governance (ESG) approach to investment is broken. It needs to be streamlined and stripped of sanctimoniousness, argues Henry Tricks

    Read full article:
    https://www.economist.com/special-report/2022/07/21/a-broken-system-needs-urgent-repairs

    Read More
  • Can Fashion Lower Its Climate Impact While Selling More Products?

    Can Fashion Lower Its Climate Impact While Selling More Products?Business of Fashion

    “The narrative we’ve told ourselves around win-win solutions has deceived everyone into thinking there are no trade-offs,” said Kenneth Pucker, a senior lecturer at the Tufts Fletcher School and an advisory director at Berkshire Partners. “There are huge trade offs.”

    * Decoupling = green growth. Attractive conceptually. Very hard practically. Especially post elimination of easy waste.
    * Conceptual win-wins = eco efficiency, fortune at the bottom of the pyramid, creating shared value, circularity, regeneration…have yet to yield much, beyond rhetoric. Patagonia’s Worn Wear = < 1% of revenue.
    * New Business Models = rental, reuse, repair …are not yet sustainable …meaning profitable. Hard to fund especially in an environment when profits matter.
    * BioBased Materials = often replace less environmentally destructive processes, face valley of death funding challenges and often rely on scarce feedstocks. Also, harder to fund when profit matters.

    Net. Change the rules. Make excess consumption less profit rich. Pass the NY Fashion Act.

    https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/sustainability/fashion-lower-climate-impact-selling-less-products-degrowth-decouple-grow-sustainability/

    Read More
 Older Posts
Newer Posts 
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Focused on the challenges and opportunities at the intersection of capitalism and natural capital. 

Experienced leader committed to results delivery in values based environments.

Specialties: Writing, teaching, leadership, mentorship, strategy, sustainability, turnarounds, consumer products, operations management

Tags

Accounting Alpha Biodiversity Carbon Emissions Circularity Climate Impact ESG ESG Investing Fashion Fashion Sustainability Fast Fast Fashion Fiduciary Duty Finance Footprint Harvard Business Review Henry Tricks Impact Impact Weighted Accounts Instant Fashion Net Zero Nike Performance Private Equity Recycling Regulation Shein Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) Strategy Sustain Sustainability Sustainability Carbon Emissions Sustainable Sustainable Investing Sustainable Reporting The Economist The Institutional Investor Win-Win
© KPP 2024
Savona Theme by Optima Themes