In a functioning democracy, it is important to have an open debate between people with very different views. This is especially true for the field of sustainable investing since it can be an ideological hot button subject to criticism from both the extreme right and the extreme left. The former view sustainable investing as some kind of thinly veiled Communism, at worst, or well-intended but misguided philanthropy that reduces legitimate financial returns at best. The latter see it as a wolf in sheep’s clothing, a cynical ploy by rapacious capitalists to call a fund green and charge higher fees for it while the money actually does nothing to make the world a better place. Done right, sustainable investing—across all asset classes in both the public and private markets—delivers both the appropriate risk-adjusted financial returns and contributes to addressing the targeted environmental or social issue.

Tariq Fancy’s long essay, “The Secret Diary of a ‘Sustainable Investor,’” has received a great deal of attention in the press. Much of this is due to the fact that he was the CIO of Sustainable Investing at BlackRock for a little less than two years. I met Mr. Fancy soon after he’d joined BlackRock at a very nice lunch in Boston with his boss Brian Deese, now director of the National Economic Council in the Biden administration. I had another conversation with him in Toronto when he told me he’d be taking a leave from BlackRock for family reasons, which he did in September of 2019. I have not talked to him since his essay was published. I think he’s made some useful points, although I don’t agree with all of them.

But it is from disagreement that we learn. For example, my friend Andy Behar, CEO of the NGO As You Sow, had some major disagreements with a piece I wrote with my colleagues Drs. Stephanie Mooij and Judith Stroehle on four strategies for effective engagement. He expressed his views in a response. While I didn’t agree with everything he said, I think he made some excellent points, and I gained some valuable insights from him.

Clara Miller | CLARA MILLER

Mr. Fancy has had both his supporters and critics. One of the latter is Clara Miller who recently published “ESG: The Fancy-ful Narrative.” Ms. Miller is someone well qualified to opine on Mr. Fancy’s views. She was the founder and CEO of the NGO Nonprofit Finance Fund for 27 years and then CEO of the F.B. Heron Foundation for nine years. I met Ms. Miller when she joined the board of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) when I was the Chairman and she served for seven years. (SASB is now called the Value Reporting Foundation [VFR] after its merger with the International Integrated Reporting Council). She is a good friend, so I asked her if she’d be willing to sit down with me for an interview. I wanted to understand better her reflections on Mr. Fancy’s three-part essay. She kindly agreed to do so.

Eccles: What prompted you to write your critique of Mr. Fancy’s “Secret Diary?”  

Miller: This one got me! The sheer waste of time, talent, and of the power he had at BlackRock laid bare in this supposedly epic tell-all was extremely disappointing to me.

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