Today, people really care about how their money can be used to make the world a better place. ESG or Sustainable Investing values companies based on specific information regarding their Environmental, Social, and Governance characteristics. This adds another layer to traditional fundamental investment analysis that focuses on economic value. In the past, Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) was an exclusionary process that removed companies based on individually-determined undesirable characteristics such as tobacco production, “blood diamonds”, animal testing, etc. As opposed to SRI’s judgement calls and personal preferences, sustainable investing utilizes analysis and documented standards to find economic value in sustainable investments.
