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ESG should be boiled down to one simple measure: emissions

economist.com

11–20 of 189 posts

Re: ESG should be boiled down to one simple measure: emissions

#11
also note that CSR (corporate social responsibility) is public relations, not a moral or ethical position, part and parcel to the term 'greenwashing'.

in the same vein as the article, we should stop talking about climate change in favor of pollution. climate change is vague, pollution is not. we can see and feel the effects of pollution, which makes it more likely that we can create a coalition to address it rather than this unspecific notion of temperatures rising. pollution affected us yesterday, affects us today, and will continue to affect us into the foreseeable future. in the 80s this framing was used effectively against acid rain (sulfur dioxide) and CFC/HFCs.

coal plants are among the most impactful in terms of pollution, so if instead of arguing about 1 or 2 or however many degrees of temperature rise, we pour all that effort into getting rid of coal plants (principally with nuclear right now, some gas at the margin, and renewables gradually, as storage and transmission tech improve), we'd be able to make meaningful impact in the next few years, with a byproduct of also reducing carbon emissions.

Re: ESG should be boiled down to one simple measure: emissions

#12

ESG is a political compliance score. Fall out of favor with certain groups and your score will plummet, publicly tout an agenda around diversity and sustainability and your score will rise. The fact that Exxon (edit: oops I mean shell) has a higher ESG score than Tesla should be all you need to know.

MSCI ESG ratings:

Tesla: A

https://www.msci.com/our-solutions/esg-investing/esg-ratings...

Exxon: BBB

https://www.msci.com/our-solutions/esg-investing/esg-ratings...

Re: ESG should be boiled down to one simple measure: emissions

#13

ESG is a political compliance score. Fall out of favor with certain groups and your score will plummet, publicly tout an agenda around diversity and sustainability and your score will rise. The fact that Exxon (edit: oops I mean shell) has a higher ESG score than Tesla should be all you need to know.

ESG was always an excuse for misconduct:

Executives and financiers took actions which harmed shareholders, retirement investors, etc to advance their personal political interests — and then smirked, saying “we lost your money for your own good!”

How much money have 401Ks lost on this nonsense?

I’m pretty sure the number is “trillions”.

Re: ESG should be boiled down to one simple measure: emissions

#16

ESG is a political compliance score. Fall out of favor with certain groups and your score will plummet, publicly tout an agenda around diversity and sustainability and your score will rise. The fact that Exxon (edit: oops I mean shell) has a higher ESG score than Tesla should be all you need to know.

it's also a way to extort money out of companies. Using slave labor? it's ok just donate some money here and boost your score.

There are also companies (don't ask) I've encountered who appear to offer nothing but 3rd party branded kubernetes combined with a whole truckload of bullshit about how their product reduces your carbon footprint in the cloud. They reach out and attempt to partner with successful disadvantaged education programs for cheap interns and to add badges to their website.

for the life of me I looked into what exactly they were doing and I couldn't figure out what they actually offered. It appeared to be nothing except a collection of bullshit to extract funding under the guise of ESG.

Re: ESG should be boiled down to one simple measure: emissions

#17

ESG is a political compliance score. Fall out of favor with certain groups and your score will plummet, publicly tout an agenda around diversity and sustainability and your score will rise. The fact that Exxon (edit: oops I mean shell) has a higher ESG score than Tesla should be all you need to know.

MSCI ESG ratings: Tesla: A https://www.msci.com/our-solutions/esg-investing/esg-ratings... Exxon: BBB https://www.msci.com/our-solutions/esg-investing/esg-ratings...

I was referring to this which happened a few months ago:

https://esgreview.net/2022/07/06/is-exxonmobil-really-more-e...

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4516270-tesla-exxon-mobil-s...

Re: ESG should be boiled down to one simple measure: emissions

#18

ESG is a political compliance score. Fall out of favor with certain groups and your score will plummet, publicly tout an agenda around diversity and sustainability and your score will rise. The fact that Exxon (edit: oops I mean shell) has a higher ESG score than Tesla should be all you need to know.

it's also a way to extort money out of companies. Using slave labor? it's ok just donate some money here and boost your score. There are also companies (don't ask) I've encountered who appear to offer nothing but 3rd party branded kubernetes combined with a whole truckload of bullshit about how their product reduces your carbon footprint in the cloud. They reach out and attempt to partner with successful disadvantage…

> it's also a way to extort money out of companies. Using slave labor? it's ok just donate some money here and boost your score.

That's not extortion, that's the opposite - bribery

> They reach out and attempt to partner with successful disadvantaged education programs for cheap interns and to add badges to their website

I did see this kind of shit once

Re: ESG should be boiled down to one simple measure: emissions

#19

ESG is a political compliance score. Fall out of favor with certain groups and your score will plummet, publicly tout an agenda around diversity and sustainability and your score will rise. The fact that Exxon (edit: oops I mean shell) has a higher ESG score than Tesla should be all you need to know.

MSCI ESG ratings: Tesla: A https://www.msci.com/our-solutions/esg-investing/esg-ratings... Exxon: BBB https://www.msci.com/our-solutions/esg-investing/esg-ratings...

Shell: AA

https://www.msci.com/our-solutions/esg-investing/esg-ratings...

Higher than TSLA

Re: ESG should be boiled down to one simple measure: emissions

#20
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MSCI ESG ratings: Tesla: A https://www.msci.com/our-solutions/esg-investing/esg-ratings... Exxon: BBB https://www.msci.com/our-solutions/esg-investing/esg-ratings...

Shell: AA https://www.msci.com/our-solutions/esg-investing/esg-ratings... Higher than TSLA

also Tesla is only average for the automotive industry which is mind-boggling.
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