S&P Global Sustainable1 President Rich Mattison; GreenBiz co-founder Joel Makower; Allison Binns, Angelo Gordon head of ESG; and I took an hour-long stab at answering the headline question last week on a GreenBiz webcast. The answer, you may not be shocked to hear: Well, it depends.
As ESG products and services were snapped up en masse in financial markets last year, the space came under attack. That was a good thing. It’s still under attack, and that’s still a good thing. But the tone, texture and temper of the attacks has meaningfully shifted, and the factors upon which “it depends” are naturally shifting as a result.
I previously wrote that increased scrutiny was a sign of ESG’s significant impact, and that the pushback wasn’t necessarily a hindrance to meaningful progress. Rather, reasoned criticism could be a boon to the evolution of ESG in its ability to shift capital allocation toward positive environmental and social outcomes while maintaining competitive returns.
While I think that remains true, some notable and high profile attacks this year have chiseled more fundamentally into the ESG edifice, from the foundation to the top floors. Again, not a bad thing.
We can’t get there from here without knowing where we are. Like Mattison told the GreenBiz 22 audience back in February, “Let’s work together on making sure that net zero is a destination in the GPS and not an ambition.”
So, where is “here” right now in the ESG GPS, and what’s…
