Greenwashing, sometimes know as Greensheen is a deceptive marketing practice, when a company makes misleading or unsubstantiated claims about how environmentallly friendly they or their products are. There has been considerable press coverage of this topic.
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Try Factiva for news and trade press coverage of Greenwashing.
The Open Access article below background:
Concepts and forms of greenwashing: a systematic review
ESG - Environmental, Social and Governance criteria are a set of non-financial performance indicators that score how well a company is performing in these areas, often referred to as the 3 pillars:
Environment – Energy efficiency, emissions, climate change strategy, water efficiency, waste management and more
Social – Health and safety, working conditions, human rights, child labour, slavery, and more
Governance – Corporate governance, board diversity and structure, executive compensation, political lobbying and more
The start of ESG
“The story of ESG investing began in January 2004 when former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan wrote to over 50 CEOs of major financial institutions, inviting them to participate in a joint initiative under the auspices of the UN Global Compact and with the support of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Swiss Government. The goal of the initiative was to find ways to integrate ESG into capital markets. A year later this initiative produced a report entitled “Who Cares Wins,” with Ivo Knoepfel as the author. The report made the case that embedding environmental, social and governance factors in capital markets makes good business sense and leads to more sustainable markets and better outcomes for societies. At the same time UNEP/Fi produced the so-called “Freshfield Report” which showed that ESG issues are relevant for financial valuation.”
Source: The Remarkable Rise of ESG by Georg Kell, Jul 11, 2018, Forbes
Or see: What is the history of ESG? Oct 21, 2022 By the Corporate Governance Institute.
For further background to understanding ESG measures:
Eccles, Robert G. and Stroehle, Judith, Exploring Social Origins in the Construction of ESG Measures (July 12, 2018).
Available at SSRN
Dimson, E, Marsh, P and Staunton, M (2020) Divergent ESG ratings. Journal of Portfolio Management, 47 (1). pp. 75-87. ISSN 0095-4918 I
Cheryl, W.M. 2022, All the ESG Investing Terms, Explained; B Corp.? Exclusionary screening? Stranded asset? Here is a look at what those and other key ESG terms and phrases mean, New York, N.Y.