How to Think About E.S.G. Investing in a Falling Market

And I view it as fulfillment of a fiduciary obligation. Assets aren’t being managed to the greatest interest of beneficiaries if, in fact, they can’t breathe or life is too dangerous at the end of their wealth building. So I see it as a means to an end, and that end is a planet that is livable — and lives worth living. And I see it as a strategy that explicitly acknowledges that investors have a role to play in providing these outcomes to the world.

LIEBER: Rachel, you were familiar with Amy’s funds. Did you come to a different conclusion?

RACHEL ROBASCIOTTI: We call our work “social justice investing.” It’s the deep integration of four areas: racial, gender, economic and climate justice.

LIEBER: Defining justice seems messy these days. On one hand, some investors don’t want to invest in weapons manufacturers. On the other, many of them would very much like to put more weapons in the hands of the Ukrainians.

ROBASCIOTTI: In the world our investors want to live in, the government is responsible for weapons and defense, and that is not a private activity.

LIEBER: Wait, so the government should be producing weapons?

DOMINI: Capitalism is great at distributing goods and services broadly and cheaply. Weapons shouldn’t be distributed broadly and cheaply.

LIEBER: Academics have been talking for years about how so-called active investing is a bad idea — that it’s just too hard to actively select the stocks that will do better than others over the long haul. Doesn’t E.S.G. investing violate these principles?

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/18/your-money/esg-investing-stocks-elon-musk.html