This has become a very common cry with many articles written about the demise of ESG in todays political climate. Sadly there is truth to this beyond the anti-woke environment. I mean why wouldnt you want to be woke? But that is a whole other likely more inflammatory article.
Instead, lets discuss the elephant in the room when it comes to Environmental, Social, and Governance, which is a framework used to assess a company’s impact on the environment, its social impact, and its governance practices.
The problem with ESG and today’s sustainability frameworks are that they all rely on self-reporting, or stated intentions. And sure, companies are very happy to share with the world their policies when it comes bold statements like “a mission to change the world for the better and give back to the communities in which it lives and works.”
The reality is that stated intentions does not equal to demonstrated actions. As a matter of fact, stated intentions is ripe for green-washing.
So what happens when you look at stated intensions and demonstrated actions and how they align to core sustainable principals?
The answer is VIA3
Our AI platform goes beyond disclosures, analyzing actual behavior and performance using public records, regulatory filings, news, and third-party data against core sustainable principals and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This rigor applies across:
- Securities: Evaluating true company actions vs. commitments with a focus on duplicity and human rights and labor violations.
- Asset Managers: Assessing the managers themselves, individually and as a company including the the tools they deploy.
- Funds & REITs: Aggregating constituent scores and analyzing fund/REIT features, including managers.
- Bonds: Focusing on issuer creditworthiness and genuine sustainability alignment.
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