• 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

  • The Sustainability Story: Casting a Critical Eye at Sustainability Inc. and ESG Investing

    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

     

  • Overselling Sustainability Reporting: We’re Confusing Output with Impact

    Harvard Business Review, May – June 2021

    Illustration of FlowersFor two decades progressive thinkers have argued that a more sustainable form of capitalism would arise if companies regularly measured and reported on their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. But although such reporting has become widespread, and some firms are deriving benefits from it, environmental damage and social inequality are still growing.

    This article, by Timberland’s former COO, outlines the problems with both sustainability reporting and sustainable investing. The author discusses nonstandard metrics, insufficient auditing, unreliable ESG ratings, and more. But real progress, he says, requires not just better measurement and reporting practices but also changes in regulations, investment incentives, and mindsets.

     

    Read the full article:  https://hbr.org/2021/05/overselling-sustainability-reporting