Sustainable : : Moving Beyond ESG to Impact Investing / / Terrence Keeley.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Columbia University Press Complete eBook-Package 2022
• VerfasserIn: Keeley, Terrence,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : Columbia University Press, , [2022]; ©2022
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource :; 48 figures

Should business and finance play larger roles in resolving the great social and environmental challenges of our time? Proponents of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing say yes. They argue that ESG financial strategies can help reverse runaway carbon emissions and fix income and gender inequalities, among other ills. ESG-integrated investments already encompass more than $120 trillion in financial assets. Are they working as promised? If not, how can they be improved?In Sustainable, a finance-industry veteran offers an insider’s look at the promises, prospects, and perils of ESG investing. Terrence Keeley argues that many ESG advocates have been overly optimistic about what it can accomplish. Divestment threats are ineffective tools for altering corporate behavior, and verifiably “good” companies do not systematically generate great returns. Most importantly, business and finance cannot cure social ills on their own: regulators, public policies, civil society, and individuals must all play specific, complementary roles to shape the future we want. Keeley provides comprehensive solutions that would promote more inclusive, sustainable growth. In particular, he recommends reallocating capital from some indexed products toward an emerging class of strategies with more verifiable social and environmental benefits. Keeley identifies dozens of alternative “impact investing” strategies that could generate true double bottom lines. He also highlights promising civic organizations with proven methodologies for achieving widely shared benefits at scale.Proposing practical, actionable, and in many cases profitable solutions to social and environmental problems, Sustainable offers an incisive vision of the roles business and finance can and should play in building a flourishing society.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- FOREWORD -- INTRODUCTION -- PART 1 The Promise . . . -- Chapter One THE STAKES -- Chapter Two STAKEHOLDERS VERSUS SHAREHOLDERS -- Chapter Three ACTIVISTS, THEIR ARGUMENTS— AND A LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD -- Chapter Four C-SUITE INSURRECTIONISTS -- Chapter Five WHAT IF +1°C = -$100 TRILLION? -- Chapter Six WHAT’S THE UNITED NATIONS GOT TO DO WITH IT? -- Chapter Seven MATERIALITY -- Chapter Eight A FEW WORDS ABOUT INDICES -- PART 2 The Perils . . . -- Chapter Nine VALUES VERSUS VALUATIONS -- Chapter Ten HARDWIRING CORPORATE GOODNESS -- Chapter Eleven INSIDE THE ESG ARMS RACE -- Chapter Twelve CROWDED TRADES -- Chapter Thirteen LET’S SPEAK PRIVATELY -- Chapter Fourteen FIGHT OR FLEE? -- PART 3 Solutions -- Chapter Fifteen CIVICS LESSONS -- Chapter Sixteen IMPACT INVESTING AT SCALE -- Chapter Seventeen THE 1.6 PERCENT “SOLUTION” -- CONCLUSION (or How to Avert Our Failed Future) -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- Appendix EXEMPLARS OF HOPE -- NOTES -- INDEX