One theme that has emerged in the global investing landscape over the past few years is the importance of environmental, social, and governance criteria. To respond to this investor-driven demand, fund companies have both launched new ESG offerings and added ESG lenses on existing funds. The rapid rise in these offerings makes it harder for investors to gauge what funds are actual leaders in the space.
Enter the Morningstar ESG Commitment Level.
As Christopher Traulsen, Morningstar director of global manager research ratings, and one of the authors of the methodology paper that explains the new Morningstar ESG Commitment Level explains, quantitative measures such as the Morningstar Sustainability Rating are part of the solution, however, the Morningstar ESG Commitment Level for funds expresses our analysts’ assessments of asset managers’ and individual strategies’ commitment to incorporating ESG into their investment organisation and processes.