A Look Beyond ESG Investing

Featured Events | Nov 04, 2022 | Gabelli School of Business

According to a 2022 Bloomberg Intelligence report, global ESG assets may surpass $41 trillion this year and $50 trillion by 2025. It’s clear that supporters of ESG investing believe that this financial strategy can play a critical role in addressing pressing social and environmental issues. However, some experts think that there are other ways to positively impact the future while generating higher returns.

Terrence Keeley, former senior client officer at BlackRock and UBS Investment Bank, explained the promises and limitations of ESG investing in his book Sustainable: Moving Beyond ESG to Impact Investing. In this webinar co-sponsored with the CFA Society New York, the Gabelli Center for Global Security Analysis, and the Museum of American Finance, Keeley discussed his theories and proposed that business and finance cannot achieve inclusive, sustainable growth on their own. Regulators, public policies, and individuals must work together to preserve the environment, address social inequalities, and shape a better, more sustainable future.

Companies can be viewed as “good” or “bad” because of their ESG ratings, but Keeley suggested evaluating investments by looking beyond these labels, and to instead determine the potential value of a company by the strides they are making now.

“Excellence has nothing to do with ESG,” he said. “I would say sustainability, circular economy, and other themes like these are going to continue to be winning investment themes, which is to say, they’ll outperform market indexes.”