The shares of PG&E, California's utility, lostnearly halftheir value in January after the company filed for破产保护由于其在加利福尼亚野火中的作用。虽然这可能导致了巨大的损失some投资者，那些谨慎的人审查环境，社会和治理（ESG）因素（并注意到了与野火相关的必威官网亚洲体育风险），这会在此前很久以前闪烁的警告信号，并避免了暴露于如此高的风险投资。

在投资决策中考虑ESG因素已成为可持续投资的代名词，这是一个在投资行业快速增长的领域。Morningstarfound that the number of sustainable investment funds in the United States alone grew 50% between 2017 and 2018, to 351 funds with $161 billion under management at the end of 2018.

尽管可持续投资的知名度越来越高，但并非所有投资者都在将ESG的注意事项整合到他们的决策中。最近ESG政策声明CFA研究所强调了这需要如何改变。

特许财务分析师（CFA）证书是经过考虑的投资分析和管理领域的黄金标准。CFA是often投资管理公司的投资组合经理和研究分析师。

CFA研究所管理该证书，该证书由全球15万多个投资专业人员持有。尽管它停止正式要求CFA特许持有人对ESG进行考虑，但其指导在投资社区中具有很大的重视。我们想突出四个收获：

1.将ESG因素纳入投资分析与信托义务一致

存在信托义务，以确保为受益人的最大利益而管理其他人的钱的任何人行为。当您投资诸如共同基金之类的基金时，基金经理将承担投资您最大利益的信托义务。

Until recently, incorporating ESG factors into the investment process was widely assumed to违反信托义务。该论点是基于这样的假设，即结合ESG因素需要在投资绩效或财务收益方面取消权衡。这通常被用作excusefor not considering ESG factors. But it turns out, this不正确.

CFA Institute helps to put this debate to rest in its policy statement.

2.更好的ESG分解导致更好的投资决策

CFA研究所的新声明强调了特许持有人在其财务分析中考虑所有物质信息，包括物质ESG因素，因为这样做将改善其投资决策。材料factors are those that a reasonable person would consider important in making investment decisions.

Knowing which ESG factors are material is critical but not straightforward, since materiality is not universal. For example, water management is a material factor for a food and beverage company, but not a financial services company; data security is material for a health care company, but not a mining company. The Sustainable Accounting Standards Board (SASB) has helped to address this challenge by映射对于给定行业内的公司来说，哪些可持续性问题可能是重要的。

在推动“更好的保理”中，CFA学院似乎承认采用框架或评级为面值并在那里停留的危险。回到PG＆E-首先脸红，它在ESG标准上表现出色。PG＆E在美国公用事业中排名最可再生能源，它已经收到高于平均水平的评级对于许多主要的ESG评级提供商的环境因素，包括彭博，Robecosam和Sustainalytics。

这些公司错过了一些东西。许多人没有注意到的关键材料因素是与野火相关的风险。例如，SASB的物质图并没有突出气候变化（例如野火）作为电力公司的物质问题。必威官网是真的吗但是，在破产提交之前很久，这种风险就嵌入了PG＆E中，如PG＆E反复延迟一条传输线的安全大修被认为会导致加利福尼亚最致命的野火。仅有的MSCI降低PG＆E的ESG评级为2018年9月，预计与野火相关的负债。

(Although it is true that investors and ratings do not and cannot accurately forecast every crisis, the inconsistent ESG ratings of PG&E highlight weaknesses in current ESG disclosure and rating systems meant to support informed, efficient investment decisions—more on these issues in #3 and #4.)

It's not just active investors who can use ESG factoring. In its statement, CFA Institute also alludes to the importance of ESG factoring forpassive products（例如，指数资金和交易所交易基金）正在越来越受欢迎。CFA研究所鼓励所有投资专业人员考虑物质ESG因素，而不论投资样式，资产类别或投资方法如何。

3. Companies' ESG disclosures require further improvements in quality, consistency and comparability

The investment decision-making process relies on proper company disclosures. CFA Institute notes that ESG disclosures and data provided by corporations, such as sustainability reporting, are oftentimes inadequate and require further standardization and refinement to improve quality, consistency and comparability. For instance, companies may not provide robust quantitative performance indicators and instead resort to check-boxes or boilerplate language about ESG issues. We had similar insights in our owncommentary关于我们今年早些时候发布的可持续性数据。

回应数据差距和投资者的增长需要全球报告计划开发的ESG披露，框架和标准（GRI），SASB和与气候有关的财务披露工作组必威官网是真的吗(TCFD)一直在促进标准化披露。

4. ESG investment products need to provide detailed disclosures about their ESG process

ESG- and sustainable-labeled investment products and services, such as funds and ratings, have integrated ESG factors. However, they are not always transparent abouthow他们这样做。许多ESG/可持续投资产品和服务都以一种或另一种形式依赖ESG分数，评级或排名。例如，标准普尔500 ESG指数依赖于提供的分数RobecoSAM, while the MSCI World ESG Universal Index uses the ESG ratingsdeveloped by MSCI itself. These ESG scores or ratings have different assumptions about what is material—and as a result, they have verylow correlationbetween each other. In other words, ESG can mean different things, depending who you ask.

CFA Institute认为，ESG投资产品必须包括适当和详细的披露并定期验证。意思是，资产经理和指数创建者需要做更多的事情，以撤回其ESG/可持续投资产品的窗帘，并向投资者保证其ESG索赔背后的物质。

What CFA Institute Is Doing Next

CFA Institute still gives full discretion to its charterholders to determine which ESG issues are material and exactly how to integrate ESG factors into their processes. However, it seems to have a strong focus on providing more educational materials on ESG to its members and candidates, which should help bring more rigor and clarity to ESG integration processes. CFA Institute is also working with other stakeholders like SASB and the Principles for Responsible Investment to improve the quality, consistency and availability of ESG information.

We are encouraged that CFA Institute's seems to be strengthening its focus on ESG. Their support and efforts are essential to help ensure that investment capital is deployed to support a more sustainable future while delivering better returns to investors. We urge charterholders to take heed of CFA Institute's call to action on ESG, and hope that CFA Institute will do more to focus attention on its ESG policy statement.

该博客文章的编辑是为了反映彭博（Bloomberg）是ESG评级的提供商，但不是评级机构。