Has ESG morphed to become just a box-ticking exercise?

As more groups move to include ESG factors within their fund strategies, Baillie Gifford's director of corporate governance Marianne Harper Gow argues analysis in this area is too 'simplistic' and many processes are undermining the research effort

The recent moves to assess environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance within fund portfolios are attempting to answer an important question: how do you tell if your asset manager is taking ESG seriously? Difficulties in accurately measuring such an output should not be underestimated. If we were able to make an informed judgement quickly and easily, and if there was a strong link between corporate growth and disclosure on ESG indicators, we would surely have been doing this years ago. How have renewable trusts fared in face of government headwinds? There are good reason...