Since 2016, Morningstar has offered investors the Morningstar Sustainability Rating, or "globe" rating, which is a holdings-based measure of a portfolio’s environmental, social, and governance risk relative to peers. While a useful metric, it cannot capture the full breadth of factors that differentiate the ESG commitment employed by a fund manager in a strategy.
To allow investors a fuller view of funds’ ESG investing strengths, Morningstar has introduced a new qualitative measure, the Morningstar ESG Commitment Level for strategies. It delivers an analyst’s qualitative appraisal of the extent to which strategies incorporate ESG factors. Our initial white paper, which was launched on Nov. 17, 2020, includes 147 funds, representing 107 strategies.