ABSTRACT
Globally, countries such as Germany thrive regardless of the US model of governance of discouraging board conflicts, which the German/Japanese model discards. It is useful to consider environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors overall in some fashion to see what all of the issues are in one go. The discrepancy between where socially responsible investing (SRI) assets are deployed vs where the most material risks truly reside helps explain why mainstream investors don't give ESG factors due consideration. ESG data on global companies is not robust in any meaningful way. For example, developing world company data largely remain lacking – especially countries such as China and Russia. EIRIS is a longstanding ESG data provider that has garnered trust, and Bloomberg emerges as the sole mainstream organization building ESG data themselves. Bloomberg's commitment is tangible – one wishes they would fully integrate ESG considerations into their radio and TV franchises as well.
