ESG Investing – Ken Pucker http://kpp.active-interactive.com Writer, Investor, Advisory Director, Berkshire Partners - Professor of Practice, Fletcher School Tufts University Thu, 08 Aug 2024 15:37:22 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.1 http://kpp.active-interactive.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/cropped-PhotoKP-32x32.jpeg ESG Investing – Ken Pucker http://kpp.active-interactive.com 32 32 Proponents and Critics of ESG Claim It Can Change Society. Both Will Be Disappointed http://kpp.active-interactive.com/articles/proponents-and-critics-of-esg-claim-it-can-change-society-both-will-be-disappointed-2/ Tue, 28 May 2024 20:12:48 +0000 http://kpp.active-interactive.com/?p=612 Flooding from torrential rains recently led Vermonters to kayak through the streets of the state capital. A month later, Hawaiians were forced to flee to the ocean to avoid devastating blazes. All the while, toxic smoke from wildfires has imperiled the health of Americans across huge swaths of the country. All these alarming environmental developments hurt economic activity. Yet many political leaders seem preoccupied with banning investors from considering the impacts of the fast-changing environment on business.

https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/2c3comfbca055bi96zxts/opinion/proponents-and-critics-of-esg-claim-it-can-change-society-both-will-be-disappointed

 

]]> 612 Proponents and Critics of ESG Claim It Can Change Society. Both Will Be Disappointed http://kpp.active-interactive.com/articles/proponents-and-critics-of-esg-claim-it-can-change-society-both-will-be-disappointed/ Wed, 23 Aug 2023 20:59:34 +0000 http://kpp.active-interactive.com/?p=498 Flooding from torrential rains recently led Vermonters to kayak through the streets of the state capital. A month later, Hawaiians were forced to flee to the ocean to avoid devastating blazes. All the while, toxic smoke from wildfires has imperiled the health of Americans across huge swaths of the country. All these alarming environmental developments hurt economic activity. Yet many political leaders seem preoccupied with banning investors from considering the impacts of the fast-changing environment on business.

These fervent objections to the longstanding use of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria in investing are a recent political chimera emanating — at least in part — from the overselling of an ill-defined concept. ESG investors include nonfinancial factors in their decisions to buy or sell a security or private asset. ESG does not, however, prevent them or anybody else from purchasing the stocks of fossil fuel companies, nor does it contribute essential primary capital to develop solutions to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

 

https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/2c3comfbca055bi96zxts/opinion/proponents-and-critics-of-esg-claim-it-can-change-society-both-will-be-disappointed

]]> 498 Shuffling deckchairs on the Titanic: is ESG a redundant concept? http://kpp.active-interactive.com/media/shuffling-deckchairs-on-the-titanic-is-esg-a-redundant-concept/ Fri, 30 Jun 2023 00:55:20 +0000 http://kpp.active-interactive.com/?p=459 Institutions across the globe have welcomed the ISSB’s much-anticipated inaugural global sustainability standards. However, some industry experts warn that too much focus on standardising data could distract from the urgent need to decarbonise.

https://www.energymonitor.ai/finance/reporting-and-disclosure/is-esg-investing-a-redundant-concept/

]]> 459 Vanguard Confronts an Inconvenient Truth http://kpp.active-interactive.com/articles/vanguard-confronts-an-inconvenient-truth/ Mon, 24 Apr 2023 17:50:49 +0000 http://kpp.active-interactive.com/?p=404 Vanguard Confronts an Inconvenient TruthVanguard had previously joined the Net Zero Asset Manager’s initiative (NZAM) in 2021, but withdrew 21 months later, citing confusion about individual firms’ views. Vanguard is unique in its ownership structure, commitment to passive index-based low-fee funds, and focus on retail investors. It has taken a more cautious approach to ESG investing and doesn’t heavily rely on external ESG ratings services. Critics argue that Vanguard should compel companies to decarbonize to prevent portfolio losses, but this overlooks asset managers’ primary duty and overstates ESG investing’s impact. Vanguard believes that addressing climate change requires governmental action and that the industry should aggressively endorse this path. Regulatory changes clarifying sustainable investing and a bifurcation of ESG investing can enable more authentic decarbonization. Vanguard’s NZAM withdrawal acknowledges the limits of win-win ESG “solutions” and clarifies the path to urgent decarbonization.

https://hbr.org/2023/04/vanguard-confronts-an-inconvenient-truth

]]> 404 ESG investing faces challenges from all sides. Can it survive? http://kpp.active-interactive.com/media/esg-investing-faces-challenges-from-all-sides-can-it-survive/ Wed, 28 Dec 2022 18:20:14 +0000 http://kpp.active-interactive.com/?p=297 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/

 

]]> 297 ESG Investing Isn’t Designed to Save the Planet http://kpp.active-interactive.com/articles/esg-investing-isnt-designed-to-save-the-planet/ Tue, 02 Aug 2022 02:53:58 +0000 http://kpp.active-interactive.com/?p=189 By: Ken Pucker & Andrew King

Harvard Business Review

Most people assume that ESG Investing is designed to reward companies that are helping the planet. In fact, ESG ratings which underlie ESG fund selection are based on “single materiality” — the impact of the changing world on a company P&L, not the reverse. Asset management firms have been happy to let the confusion go uncorrected — ESG funds are highly popular and come with higher management fees. The danger with ESG investing is that it might convince policy makers that the market can solve major societal challenges such as climate change — when in fact only government intervention can help the planet avoid a climate catastrophe

Read the full article: https://hbr.org/2022/08/esg-investing-isnt-designed-to-save-the-planet

]]> 189 The Sustainability Story: Casting a Critical Eye at Sustainability Inc. and ESG Investing http://kpp.active-interactive.com/podcasts-featuring-ken/the-sustainability-story-casting-a-critical-eye-at-sustainability-inc-and-esg-investing/ Sat, 23 Jul 2022 18:08:52 +0000 http://kpp.active-interactive.com/?p=96 The Sustainability Story PodcastWe talk with Ken Pucker, Advisory Director at Berkshire Partners and a Senior Lecturer at the Fletcher School at Tufts University.
We discuss Ken’s time at Timberland, where he was at the forefront of the company’s social responsibility movement. We talk about the challenges facing the sustainable finance, ESG investing and impact accounting.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/casting-a-critical-eye-at-sustainability-inc-and/id1581786457?i=1000549766038

 

]]> 96 ESG and Alpha: Sales or Substance? http://kpp.active-interactive.com/articles/esg-and-alpha-sales-or-substance-the-institutional-investor/ Fri, 25 Feb 2022 14:39:36 +0000 http://kpp.active-interactive.com/?p=51 Institutional Investor

By Andrew A. King and Kenneth P. Pucker
February 25, 2022

Institutional Investor: ESG and Alpha: Sales or Substance?Managers of ESG investments create false hope, exaggerate outperformance, and contribute to the delay of long-past-due regulatory action.

In late 2018, while seated on the dais of The New York TimesDealBook Conference, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink declared that“demand for ESG [environmental, social, and governance] is going to transform all investing.” At the time, Fink’s assertion seemed bold. Today it looks prescient. Escalating social and environmental challenges and claims that ESG investing can deliver alpha (outsize market returns) and a more sustainable planet have prompted investors to divert more than $3 billion per day to ESG investment products. According to Bloomberg, ESG investment now represents approximately one third of all professionally managed assets.

Read the full article:
https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/b1wxqznltqnyzj/ESG-and-Alpha-Sales-or-Substance

 

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