ESG Is Not About Ethical Standards And Ethical Values

Over the past year I’ve certainly had some fun banging on about those in the GOP who are ranting about ESG. Their flawed reasoning and fiery rhetoric made this an easy thing to do.

They say, quoting the immortal words of former Vice President Mike Pence in his May 26, 2022 letter to the Wall Street Journal, that “ESG is a pernicious strategy, because it allows the left to accomplish what it could never hope to achieve at the ballot box or through competition in the free market. ESG empowers an unelected cabal of bureaucrats, regulators and activist investors to rate companies based on their adherence to left-wing values.” I say, “Gosh, it’s nothing nearly as exciting as that. It’s simply about companies and investors managing material risk factors to ensure long-term value creation.”

But in the interest of being fair and balanced, I have an obligation to call out others whose politics are closer to mine when they are equally confused about ESG. My example is a January 26, 2022 essay “The Federal Government and the Ethical Value of ESG Policy” by John Pelissero, a political scientist and senior scholar for government ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University.