ESG stands for environmental, social, and governance. ESG investing refers to how companies score on these responsibility metrics and standards for potential investments. Environmental criteria gauge how a company safeguards the environment. Social criteria examine how it manages relationships with employees, suppliers, customers, and communities. Governance measures a company’s leadership, executive pay, audits, internal controls, and shareholder rights.

ESG 代表environmental（环境）、social（社会）和governance（治理）。 ESG投资考虑公司在这些责任维度上的表现作为潜在投资的评估标准。 环境标准关注公司如何保护环境。 社会标准评估公司如何管理与员工、供应商、客户和社区的关系。 治理标准则检视公司的领导力、高管薪酬、审计、内部控制和股东权利。

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

要点

·Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing is used to screen investments based on corporate policies and to encourage companies to act responsibly.

·环境、社会和治理（ESG）投资用于筛选符合公司政策的投资，并促使公司采取负责任的行动。

·Many brokerage firms offer investment products that employ ESG principles.

·许多经纪公司提供基于ESG原则的投资产品。

·ESG investing can help portfolios avoid holding companies engaged in risky or unethical practices.

·ESG投资有助于投资组合避免控股公司从事高风险或不道德的行为。

 

How ESG Investing Works

ESG 投资如何运作

ESG investing is sometimes referred to as sustainable investing, responsible investing, impact investing, or socially responsible investing (SRI). To assess a company based on ESG criteria, investors look at a broad range of behaviors and policies. ESG investors seek to ensure the companies they fund are responsible stewards of the environment, good corporate citizens, and led by accountable managers based on criteria including:

ESG 投资有时被称为可持续投资、责任投资、影响投资或社会责任投资 (SRI)。 根据 ESG 标准评估一家公司时，投资者会考虑一系列广泛的行为和政策。 ESG 投资者力求确保其投资的公司是负责任的环境管理者、良好的企业公民，并由负责任的管理者领导，其标准包括：

 

·Environmental: Investors evaluate corporate climate policies, energy use, waste, pollution, natural resource conservation, and treatment of animals. Considerations may include direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions, management of toxic waste, and compliance with environmental regulations.

·环境：投资者评估企业气候政策、能源使用、废弃物处理、污染、自然资源保护和动物待遇。 考虑因素可能包括直接和间接温室气体排放、有毒废物的管理以及遵守环境法规。

 

·Social: A company's relationships with internal and external stakeholders are evaluated. Does the company donate a percentage of profits to the local community or encourage employees to volunteer? Do workplace conditions reflect a high regard for employees’ health and safety?

·社会：评估公司与内部和外部利益相关者的关系。 公司是否向当地社区捐赠一定比例的利润或是否鼓励员工参与志愿者活动？ 工作场所条件是否反映出对员工健康和安全的高度重视？

 

·Governance: Ensures a company uses accurate and transparent accounting methods, pursues integrity and diversity in selecting its leadership, and is accountable to shareholders. ESG investors may require assurances that companies avoid conflicts of interest in their choice of board members and senior executives, don't use political contributions to obtain preferential treatment or engage in illegal conduct.

·治理：确保公司使用准确透明的会计方法，在选择领导层时追求诚信和多样性，并对股东负责。 ESG投资者可能要求公司保证在选择董事会成员和高级管理人员时避免利益冲突，不利用政治捐款来获取优惠待遇或从事非法行为。

 

ESG investors help inform the investment choices of large institutional investors such as public pension funds. ESG-specific mutual funds and ETFs reached a record $480 billion AUM in 2023.Brokerage and mutual fund companies offer exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and other financial products that follow ESG investing strategies. Robo-advisors including Betterment and Wealthfront have promoted these ESG-themed offerings to younger investors.

ESG 投资者帮助公共养老基金等大型机构投资者做出投资选择。 ESG 特定共同基金和 ETF 的资产管理规模在 2023 年达到创纪录的 4800 亿美元。经纪和共同基金公司提供遵循 ESG 投资策略的交易所交易基金 (ETF) 和其他金融产品。 Betterment 和 Wealthfront 等机器人顾问已向年轻投资者推广这些以 ESG 为主题的产品。

 

Important：Socially responsible investing (SRI) is an investment strategy highlighting one facet of ESG. SRI investors seek companies that promote ethical and socially conscious themes including diversity, inclusion, community focus, social justice, corporate ethics, and racial, gender, and sexual discrimination.

重要提示：社会责任投资（SRI）是一种强调 ESG 某一方面的投资策略。 SRI 投资者寻求提倡道德和社会意识主题的公司，包括多样性、包容性、社区关注、社会正义、企业道德以及种族、性别和性别歧视。

 

ESG Metrics

Investment firms like Boston-based Trillium Asset Management, use a variety of ESG factors to help identify companies positioned for strong long-term performance. The criteria are set by analysts who identify the relevant issues facing specific sectors, industries, and companies.

ESG指标

总部位于波士顿的 Trillium Asset Management 等投资公司利用一系列 ESG 因素来帮助筛选具有强劲长期潜力的公司。 这些标准由分析师制定，他们确定特定部门、行业和公司面临的相关问题。

 

Trillium's ESG criteria preclude investments in companies that operate in higher-risk areas or have exposure to coal or hard rock mining, nuclear or coal power, private prisons, agricultural biotechnology, tobacco, tar sands, or weapons and firearms. They do not invest in companies involved in major or recent controversies over human rights, animal welfare, environmental concerns, governance issues, or product safety.

Trillium 的 ESG 标准排除投资于在高风险地区运营或从事煤炭或硬岩开采、核能或煤电、私人监狱、农业生物技术、烟草、沥青砂或武器及枪械制造公司。同时，也避免投资于近期或重大涉及人权、动物福利、环境保护、治理问题或产品安全争议的公司。

 

Trillium's metrics include investments in companies that support the environment through renewable energy sources and published sustainability reports. Social metrics include companies that operate ethical supply chains and avoid overseas labor with questionable workplace or child labor policies. Metrics for governance require companies to embrace diversity on the board of directors and maintain corporate transparency.

Trillium 的评价指标还包括投资于通过可再生能源支持环境的公司，并发布可持续性发展报告。 社会指标方面，关注那些实施道德供应链、避免雇佣存在劳动条件或童工问题海外劳工的公司。在治理方面，要求公司确保董事会多元化并维持企业透明度。

 

Investors and ESG

投资者和 ESG

As ESG business practices gain traction, investment firms track their performance. Financial services companies such as JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Wells Fargo (WFC), and Goldman Sachs (GS) publish annual reports that extensively review their ESG approaches and the bottom-line results.

随着 ESG 商业实践的普及，投资公司开始跟踪其业绩表现。例如， 摩根大通 (JPM)、富国银行 (WFC) 和高盛 (GS) 等金融服务公司发布年度报告，广泛审查其 ESG 方法和底线结果。

 

The ultimate value of ESG investing depends on whether they encourage companies to drive real change for the common good, or merely check boxes and publish reports. That, in turn, will depend on whether the investment flows follow ESG tenets that are realistic, measurable, and actionable.

ESG 投资的根本价值取决于它们是否鼓励公司为了共同利益推动真正的变革，而非仅仅进行形式上的勾选和报告发布。 反过来，这将取决于投资流量是否遵循现实、可衡量和可操作的 ESG 原则。

 

Tobacco and defense are two industries avoided by many ESG investors, but historically produced above-average market returns and can buck recessionary trends. To support ESG, U.S. investors may be sacrificing returns in exchange for values. Many ESG investors are willing to make that tradeoff, though; according to a survey of Investopedia and Treehugger readers, nearly half of ESG investors said they’d be willing to take a 10% loss over five years to invest in a company that “aligns exceptionally against ESG standards.” But 74% of respondents said that valuation/price was “very or extremely important to them.”

尽管烟草和国防是许多 ESG 投资者回避的两个行业，但历史上它们产生的市场回报高于平均水平，并且可以逆衰退趋势发展。 为了支持 ESG，美国投资者可能会牺牲回报来换取价值。 不过，许多 ESG 投资者愿意做出这种权衡； 根据 Investopedia 和 Treehugger 读者的一项调查，近一半的 ESG 投资者表示，他们愿意在五年内承担 10% 的损失，以投资一家“非常符合 ESG 标准”的公司。 但 74% 的受访者表示，估值/价格“对他们来说非常或极其重要”。

 

How Is ESG Investing Different From Sustainable Investing?

ESG 投资与可持续投资有何不同？

ESG and sustainability are closely related. ESG investing screens companies based on criteria related to being pro-social, environmentally friendly, and with good corporate governance. Together, these features can lead to sustainability. ESG, therefore, looks at how a company's management and stakeholders make decisions; sustainability considers the impact of those decisions on the world.

ESG 与可持续发展密切相关。 ESG 投资通过与支持社会、环境友好和良好公司治理相关的标准筛选公司。 这些特征共同可以带来可持续性。 因此，ESG着眼于公司管理层和利益相关者如何做出决策； 可持续性考虑这些决定对世界的影响。

 

What Does ESG Mean for a Business?

ESG 对企业意味着什么？

Adopting ESG principles means corporate strategy focuses on environment, social, and governance. This means taking measures to lower pollution, and CO2 output, and reduce waste. It also means having a diverse and inclusive workforce, at the entry level and the board of directors.

采用 ESG 原则意味着企业战略将聚焦于环境、社会和治理。 这意味着采取措施降低污染、减少二氧化碳排放并减少浪费。 同时，还意味着在基层员工和董事会中拥有多元化和包容性的员工队伍。

 

How Do I Know Which Investments Are ESG?

如何判断哪些投资是ESG？

Several financial firms have ESG ratings and scoring systems. For instance, MSCI has a rating scheme covering over 8,500 companies, giving them scores and letter grades based on their compliance with ESG standards and initiatives. Several other companies, like Morningstar and Bloomberg, have also created criteria for scoring companies on the ESG objectives.

多家金融公司拥有 ESG 评级和评分系统。 例如，MSCI 的评级计划涵盖超过 8,500 家公司，根据其遵守 ESG 标准和举措的情况给予分数和字母等级。 晨星公司和彭博社等其他几家公司也制定了公司 ESG 目标评分标准。

 

The Bottom Line

总结

ESG investing focuses on companies that follow positive environmental, social, and governance principles. Investors are increasingly eager to align their portfolios with ESG-related companies and fund providers, making it an area of growth with positive effects on society and the environment.

ESG 投资重点关注遵循积极的环境、社会和治理原则的公司。 投资者越来越渴望将其投资组合与ESG相关公司和基金提供商结合起来，使其成为对社会和环境产生积极影响的增长领域。

 

 

By THE INVESTOPEDIA TEAM

Updated March 21, 2024

Reviewed by JEFREDA R. BROWN

Fact checked by ARIEL COURAGE

作者：INVESTOPEDIA 团队

更新日期：2024 年 3 月 21 日

审核：JEFREDA R. BROWN

核实：ARIEL COURAGE

英文来源：Investopedia