It seems to have been a mistake by its index provider FTSE, but this tweet by Eric Balchunas of Bloomberg shows five stocks Vanguard‘s ESG fund that many professionals would not likely rank high on ESG measures.
While I believe ESG and ethical factors in investing are far more subjective than quantitative factors like value (I have argued tobacco can actually score very high on ESG), casinos, guns, and oil/defense are among three sectors I have most seen from large “McESG” funds. This is yet another example of why I don’t believe ESG will work well under the brand of a large, impersonal institution that tries to please everyone (as much as I love Vanguard), but rather presents opportunities to specialists in certain ESG values and factors.
Have a great week!
Some not-so-ESG stocks were inadvertently added Vgrd's ESG ETF thx to a FTSE error. Here's a clip of BI's Shaheen Contractor and BN's @echasan (who worked together on scoop) explaining what happened: https://t.co/jvSxYntdNv pic.twitter.com/SeQMxdV3hY
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) August 15, 2019
