Progressive Pockets Guest Episode: The surprising truth about what ESG actually means

This week Renegade Capital features a special guest episode from the Progressive Pockets Podcast! Hosted by Genet G.G. Gimja, Progressive Pockets is a podcast at the intersection of social impact and money that covers questions of how we might spend, donate, and invest more in line with our values.

In this episode, they talk about ways to line up our values and our money. When we think about the things that keep us up at night. Whether that’s climate change, or homelessness, or the systematic oppression of our communities, we usually talk about how we can claim our power when we vote. Some of us might protest, or organize ourselves in other ways. But what about….our money?

Where do we bank, where do we shop, where do we donate?

Whether you call it:

• Impact Investing
• Ethical Investing
• Socially responsible investing
• Sustainable Investing, or
• Values- Aligned investing

You have probably come across the term "ESG" when looking for investments that line up with your values. Often you may hear the abbreviation used as a shorthand for "socially responsible" investing. But this is a gross misunderstanding of what ESG really means!

Links

• MSCI ESG Ratings Explained- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79rZm7FCkOU 
• Sustainalytics What is ESG?- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwGmtThiwII 
• An Institutional Approach to Gender Diversity and Firm Performance by Letian Zhang- https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=55194 
• What MSCI’s ESG Ratings are and are not- https://www.msci.com/our-solutions/esg-investing/esg-ratings/what-esg-ratings-are-and-are-not

This episode was originally published here on Progressive Pockets.