💡 Would not hurt to know

Whenever you see an E score improve…   Ask yourself: “How come?” It is increasingly common that some listed companies (that are scrutinized about ESG) sell their “dirty” (carbon-emitting) assets to private equity (that are not too scrutinized about ESG), hence the listed companies’ scores improve, but the economy is as dirty as before. https://www.economist.com/leaders/2022/02/12/the-truth-about-dirty-assets Or … Continue reading “How do some companies become “greener”?”

Between the two downloads in 11/2019 and 02/2021, 44% of carbon emission observations (Scope 1 CO2 emissions) by one of the major ESG data providers have in some way been altered (added, deleted, or rewritten). Depending on when you download the data, you might find almost a third more/less Gt CO2. Aggregate scope 1 emissions … Continue reading “On the changes to the historical CO2 data”

There is a really nice paper by Eccles and Stroehle (2018) that outlines the different social origins of the data providers, and their objectives. They differentiate ESG rating agencies into: value-based vs. values-based. The authors suggest to have a look at your data vendor’s mission or purpose statement to give you an indication of your … Continue reading “On the ESG ratings and the value(s)-based system”