Asset Managers Are “All Over the Place on ESG”

ESG投资——将环境、社会和治理等所谓的非金融因素纳入投资组合的做法——在业绩方面受到了一些不好的评价。但部长和传教士福利委员会（MMBB）负责公共市场投资的高级经理马修·舍伍德（Matthew Sherwood）对ESG投资表现逊于非ESG投资的观点提出异议，现在他有了数据来证明这一点。

舍伍德,也是投资的一员ommittee and ESG working group for the Plan Sponsor Council of America and lectures on ESG investing at the King’s College in New York, recently coauthored a new paper on ESG equity strategies in emerging markets, which looked at the relative performance of the MSCI Emerging Markets ESG index versus non-ESG indexes. Sherwood found that institutional investors would have done better by investing in the emerging-markets ESG index, rather than its non-ESG counterpart, based on a 15 percent allocation of assets to emerging-markets equities from 2007 to 2016 (the average institutional investor allocation to emerging-markets equities, according to a2015年调查经济合作与发展组织）。在此期间，基于ESG的指数的年化回报率为2.69%，而非ESG指数的年化回报率为0.86%。使用ESG指数后，整体投资组合回报率每年增加0.4%，而使用非ESG指数时，整体投资组合回报率每年增加0.13%。对于一个20亿美元的养老基金来说，这一差额加起来很快，在9年的时间里总计达到549万美元的资产。

Sherwood says that not only was the ESG-based performance statistically meaningful and significantly greater over the same period than the non-ESG indexes return, it was also less volatile than the non-ESG index. He recently spoke with Matt Craig, global content director for Institutional Investor’s Investor Intelligence Network, about his findings.

Institutional Investor: How do U.S. investors stack up against their international counterparts when it comes to implementing ESG investment strategies?

舍伍德：U、 美国投资者在ESG问题上落后于市场。许多人仍然只适用“罪恶股票”排除，避免在烟草、酒精、赌博或色情等领域投资。这样一个独立的、基于排斥的政策是看待ESG投资的过时方法，而不是研究ESG如何为投资者增值。ESG可以成为推动投资业绩增长的积极力量，它还可以帮助投资者了解公司，既是一种研究工具，也是一种风险管理工具。

You are keen to see ESG factors integrated into the research and management of MMBB’s investment strategies. Why?

从长期来看（在其他条件相同的情况下），具有良好ESG形象的公司的价值应高于市场平均水平。这一结果可以在指数层面上观察到；摩根士丹利资本国际新兴市场ESG指数自成立以来，在风险和回报方面都比同等的非ESG指数更具吸引力。因此，我们可以看到良好的ESG表现如何改善股票的财务表现。

MMBB如何将ESG研究整合到其投资流程中？

We are looking for asset managers that incorporate ESG into their investment approach. We are not firing our managers who don’t take account of ESG, but we are looking for even small signs that it is an issue for them. For example, Do they take account of gender diversity at board level when they invest in a company?

你说过，资产管理公司在处理ESG问题时可以“到处都是”。以什么方式？

虽然消极筛选或基于排除的投资是ESG的传统用法，但ESG投资的其他方面已经出现，如影响驱动、基于参与和基于整合。可悲的是，在目前的状况下，资产管理界在制定实施ESG投资的复杂战略方面做得并不好，似乎将ESG作为一种营销工具，而不是一种风险和研究机制。

你说过，消极筛选是应用ESG信念的一种老式方法，但在大型投资者和MMBB中，有一种回避烟草股的发展趋势。你怎么看这个？

It is a product that kills off its customers, which doesn’t seem like a sound long-term investment proposition to me. Think about all the cigarette butts that filter into the water supply and sewers, creating carcinogenic waste. It is not just killing off its customers; there are other negative aspects to it. Institutional investors made a global commitment in the 1980s to unite in the fight against apartheid; tobacco exclusion is a similar cause, as drinking water is so important for all of us.

如果烟草应该被排除在外，那么与气候变化相关的公司将何去何从？

I would exclude, say, dirty oil and fracking companies, but want to integrate some greener energy and natural gas producers. I would prefer to engage with companies that are proactively building their business model around reducing carbon usage.

How can ESG data be useful to investors?

与股票期权市场提供公司信息的方式相同，ESG也可以提供股票信息。因此，ESG数据提供了重要的横截面信息。我希望我能成为其他人的资源，因为许多投资者使用ESG还有一段路要走。