the CEO of the Harris Poll and vice chair of Stagwell explain how certain words have become “like dog whistles” to hinder business. At the top of the list are “DEI” at 31 percent partisan split and “ESG” at 27 percent. They have even coined the new term “toxic wordle” to describe the most damaging current business words and phrases.
The cleverness of the toxic wordle phrase aside, there appears a softening of stances occurring around DEI and ESG in asset management since the Supreme Court’s June ’23 affirmative action ruling. And also great confusion around what is actually being discussed when terms like ESG or sustainability are used.
since Morningstar started keeping track over ten years ago. Investors pulled over $13 billion from sustainable funds in 2023, with equity funds showing the worst underperformance. Demand for sustainable investing remains weak this year.ASC Advisors looked at what 2023’s top 50 hedge funds are reporting in terms of ESG and diversity on their websites and in their form ADVs. They observed some interesting trends.
after record levels hit in 2022 and 2023. He suggests shareholders may be saying “enough” to politicization of business, after seeing proposal demands far surpassing what organizations such as the United Nations suggested in their PRI. One progressive example was a shareholder proposal asking the company to perform internal audits of civil rights. On the flip side, he further notes that most recently there have been a rising number of conservative proposals, also gaining little support.
A large challenge for businesses, particularly in politically charged times, is to say what they mean. Loose use of acronyms and labels only cloud clarity around actual concepts and intent. When there are so many definitions, businesses need to specify what they mean when they mention ESG or sustainability.