ESG Metrics and Social Opportunities
Top Recent Papers on ESG Scoring, Sustainability, and Social Factors
FTSE Russell describes an innovative way of ascribing a 'temperature score' to sovereign assets in order to gauge a country's commitments to ESG priorities. Northern Trust discusses ESG scores and their own methodology of vector-scoring corporations based on ESG criteria.
Other papers focus on the social factors that are most relevant to institutional investors and problems that may arise when attempting to decarbonise a portfolio. Also, don't miss MSCI's net zero webinar coming up on July 15. Click the link below to register.
Webinar 15th July: Advance your Net Zero Strategy (MSCI, July 2021)
How can investors optimise their own path to a net zero outcome? In this webinar, MSCI explores three different investor approaches to accelerate the move towards a net zero economy.
How to Measure the Temperature of Sovereign Assets (FTSE Russell, 2021)
How does one gauge the commitments of a sovereign debt issuer to ESG priorities? FTSE Russell and Beyond Ratings have developed a methodology that applies a temperature score that is based on a country's official submissions to the UNFCCC about ESG issues.
ESG Vector Score (Northern Trust, 2021)
The ESG Vector Score that Northern Trust has developed is a metric aimed at assessing public companies on specific, materially relevant ESG criteria.
Sustainability-Themed Investing: Affecting positive change (Global X ETFs, 2021)
For compliance reasons, this paper is only accessible in the United Kingdom
Global X ETFs discusses sustainability-themed investments as the intersection of sustainability investing and thematic investing. They briefly cover several specific themes, including electric vehicles and health/wellness.
Two Become One: Combining corporate credit with ESG criteria (HSBC AM, May 2021)
For compliance reasons, this paper is only accessible in certain geographies
HSBC Asset Management describes several methods for constructing an ESG-centric corporate bond index from a parent index. The authors also compare the characteristics of the indices they construct using these different methods.
How to Assess Social Value (Aviva Investors, 2021)
For compliance reasons, this paper is only accessible in certain geographies
In this Aviva Investors interview, Dr. Kelly Watson of Hatch consultancy speaks about the measuring and management of social value.
Challenges of Decarbonising Investment Portfolios (Robeco, Jul 2021)
Robeco looks at some of the impediments to decarbonising investment portfolios, such as misrepresentations of emissions data.
Exploring the Financial Materiality of Social Factors (DWS, Jun 2021)
DWS examines the materiality of social factors such as human capital policies, how Covid-19 has affected these social factors, and why institutional investors should be taking notice.
Resetting the Agenda: ESG risk to opportunity survey (UBS AM, Jun 2021)
This collaborative, 46-page report from UBS Asset Management and The Economist Intelligence Unit outlines a variety of trends in sustainability across the globe.
Asset Owner’s Guide to Fixed Income ESG Integration (Willis Towers Watson, 2021)
Willis Towers Watson provides this helpful guide for pension funds and other asset owners on ESG integration, including their own framework for the assessment of managers and their sustainability practices.
