With the growth of sustainable, responsible, and impact (SRI) investing, the measurement and assessment of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) impacts of investments are becoming imperative. Numerous concerns have been raised over the reliability of existing ESG ratings, including the incomparability between different ESG metrics, biases and inconsistencies in rating construction, and low correlations between different ratings. This calls for greater standardization of ESG information disclosure and impact measurement, as well as properly valuing impact, not just in its natural unit but also in monetary terms.
The Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics (SKBI) and the Singapore Green Finance Centre (SGFC) presented a live ESG Measurements and Standards webinar as a side event of the 4th Annual Global Research Alliance for Sustainable Finance & Investment (GRASFI) Conference. The session covered two main topics: (1) the divergence and convergence of different ESG ratings, and (2) how measurements can move beyond ratings toward an impact-weighted account.
Watch the recorded webinar.
Agenda
Industry Panel on the Recent Development of Impact Measurement
Moderator: Dave Fernandez, Professor of Finance (Practice), SMU; Director, SKBI; Co-Director, SGFC
Panellists:
- Dave Chen, CEO/Chairman, Equilibrium; Adjunct Professor of Finance, Northwestern University – Kellogg School of Management
- Adrian De Groot Ruiz, Executive Director, Impact Institute
- Wong Dan Chi, Head of ESG Integration, APAC, Schroders; Adjunct Faculty, Singapore Management University
Research and Policy Panel on Measurements and Standards
Moderator: Liang Hao, Associate Professor of Finance, SMU; Lee Kong Chian Fellow, SMU; Management Committee Member, SGFC
Panellists:
- Andrew King, Questrom Professor in Management, Boston University
- Shawn Cole, John G. McLean Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
- Michael Tang, Head of Listing Policy & Product Admission, Singapore Exchange (SGX)