Sustainability
Tenured Harvard Business School professor, now at Oxford University.
There is a surreal snake eating its tail ethereal ambience to this story. So let me start by saying I’m not making any of this up. You can verify every fact in this piece (unlike the WSJ op-ed piece I’ll be discussing below). Let me also say that the intellectually shallow contortions of the anti-ESG crowd never cease to amaze me. Last bit of throat clearing before I get to the topic. I want to acknowledge my continuing indebtedness to them for the writing opportunities they provide for me.
The latest comes from an op-ed piece “Is ESG Profitable? The Numbers Don’t Lie” by Mike Edleson and Andy Puzder published on March 10 in the never-ESG-friendly The Wall Street Journal. Both men have very distinguished backgrounds (note how I provided links to verify this statement) and space does not allow me giving them the full recognition they deserve. So I’ll just focus on the bit that’s relevant here. Mr. Edleson is a director of 2ndVote Value Investments Inc., parent company of an investment-advisory firm that licenses 2ndVote Analytics’s scores. Mr. Puzder is chairman of 2ndVote Value Investments and a senior fellow of the very conservative Heritage Foundation.
FILE – In this Nov. 19, 2016 file photo, President-elect Donald Trump walks Labor Secretary-designate Andy Puzder from Trump National Golf Club Bedminster clubhouse in Bedminster, N.J. Puzder was CEO of a fast food empire that is outsourcing jobs on his watch, a stark contrast with his boss’ threats and tweeted slaps at companies that outsource jobs. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)COPYRIGHT 2016 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
In the spirit of transparency, I acknowledge that I’ve never heard of Mr. Edleson so have no priors about him. I have heard of Mr. Puzder. I don’t know much about him, but his name keeps popping up as one of the thought leaders of the anti-ESG movement. Take, for example, this entertaining video “ESG Investing is an Attack on the Free Market.” For more politically motivated anti-ESG rant check out “Heritage Explains the ESG Pushback” which warns us that “Under the umbrella of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) activism, corporations have become unimaginably woke.“ Italics theirs.
Robert G. Eccles of Saïd Business School, University of Oxford is the author of a number of books on integrated reporting, sustainability and the role of business in society. His focus is on sustainability from both a company and investor perspective. Professor Eccles is also involved in a variety of initiatives to embed environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues in real world decision making. One of these is the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), of which he was the founding chairman. In 2018, Professor Eccles was selected by Barron’s as one of the top 20 influencers on ESG investing.
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