Many investors and financial professionals have embraced ESG as a way of more closely aligning capital markets with human values. Advocates of the movement believe that a focus on the environmental, social and governance elements of for-profit companies will both help to solve many of the world's most pressing problems - climate change foremost among them - while continuing to earn healthy returns for corporations and investors alike. Further, numbers suggest that the market has responded: according to the Economist magazine, a third of all money under management today may be influenced by the methods of ESG.
Despite the popularity of ESG, many skeptics remain on Wall Street and in the academy. They claim that proponents of ESG are simply offering an unproven way for investors to feel good about the ethical implications of their portfolio choices without making any sacrifice in return. The Robert Zicklin Center for Corporate Integrity is delighted to host one such skeptic, NYU Stern's Prof. Aswath Damodaran, a leading educator and thinker on corporate finance. He will address the practical and moral shortcomings of ESG in an in-person lunchtime discussion.