ABSTRACT
Sustainable business and ESG investing will continue to transform markets in the coming decades. The rise of artificial intelligence (AI), natural language processing (NLP), spatial finance, asset-level information and data tagging are outlined in this chapter. Four mindset shifts are proposed to enable ESG data to better reflect the real world: from boastful to humble; closed to open; exclusive to inclusive; and fixed methods to plural approaches. Tighter definitions are suggested: ESG defined as a process for financial returns, not saving the world. Customised finance can better link ultimate beneficiaries to investment decisions. This chapter contributes to the research by outlining how participatory measurement and inclusive data can help to better measure sustainable business. The human world is not made up of stable, uniform and predictable objects but subjective, multifaceted, abstract, ambiguous, nuanced, non-linear and often unknowable experiences. The chapter introduces the ideas of context or triple materiality alongside a new idea of ethical materiality. Ethical materiality considers right and wrong alongside financial impact and context objectives.
