What drives ESG growth?

The Globe and Mail published an article by George Athanassakos, professor of finance and Ben Graham Chair in Value Investing at the Ivey Business School, University of Western Ontario. He references the academic literature and states, among other things:

“At the end of the day, it seems to me, given the lack of hard evidence in favour of ESG investing, what drives ESG growth is simply the potential for consultants, bankers and investment managers to make money, as well as the fact that ESG funds normally carry higher margins.”

“A study at Columbia University and London School of Economics found that the compliance of firms with higher ESG scores was no better than that of firms with low ESG scores.”

This is hardly something a company thinking carefully about its long term reputation would want to be associated with.

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