Are Standardized ESG Disclosures Effective?

Source: WealthManagement.com, 30 January 2017
The push is on for companies to report their non-financial metrics around sustainability in a standardized way that can be rated and ranked. As more asset managers look to incorporate environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) criteria into their investment decisions, the need to put those factors into quantifiable and comparable metrics has gained momentum.
However, putting solid numbers behind things like a corporation’s environmental impact or its policies around ethical supply chain management can be tricky. Several financial data providers collect corporate data around the factors, but their categories, definitions and methods of collecting the data vary. In many cases, the information needed is too scant to make a truly objective rating.
Read the full article by Thomas Seubert (WealthManagement.com’s editorial intern)