ESG an empty buzzword

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KiwiSaver provider Kōura welcomes fund managers moves to adopt ESG policies but says many are useless and more regulation is required.

Wednesday, August 11th 2021, 9:45AM 5 Comments

In its latest newsletter Kōura welcomes ESG: "While it’s amazing to see an old dinosaur of an industry that at times has lacked a moral compass start to stand for something, we should hold off on celebrating just yet."

The emerging issue with ESG is that it’s turning into an empty buzzword that lacks backing by any solid regulation.

Kōura says KiwiSaver providers and fund managers marketing their ESG investing policies are already pulling the wool over the eyes of consumers, because the definition of ESG is a regulatory grey area.

A couple of examples are provided.

"One KiwiSaver provider advertises that you can ‘invest your money and do good for the world’  because they follow an ESG investing strategy. Their ESG policy is quite extensive and so their investments exclude weapons, gambling, tobacco, whaling, fossil fuels, and companies that are in breach of human rights.

"Another provider advertises the exact same claim as the provider above. Except this provider’s ESG policy is less extensive. They only exclude weapons and fossil fuels.

"In a 15 second ad, these two KiwiSaver providers look and sound like they have the same thing going for them. But in reality, it’s not the case and the second provider is arguably engaging in a whole lot of greenwashing."

Kōura says t’s almost impossible for consumers to easily do their own ESG research on individual providers

"Most KiwiSaver providers now have a section on their website that mentions they follow an ESG investing policy, but most lack depth and clear information as to what funds (all, some or only one!?) that the policy applies to."

"To make matters even more confusing, there are some providers that have ESG policies that only apply to the investments that they make directly, meaning their ESG policy doesn’t apply to underlying funds that they invest in.

"One fund that we recently reviewed claims they have the most extensive ESG policy in the market, though when we looked at their investments, over 50% of the fund was invested in funds that did not have matching ESG criteria."

Kōura gives a shout out to online comparison platform Mindful Money, but warns investors to be careful as the site earns a fee when investors switch using its service.

"As with any platform where money is exchanged in order to be on a ratings/rankings list, we recommend viewing everything with a pinch of salt and a small grain of cynicism."

"For example, we would argue that Generate’s Growth fund should be on the Mindful KiwiSaver list (with only 1.7% of the fund's investments being in areas of concern) instead of Kiwi Wealth’s Growth Fund which is on the list yet holds 12.97% of its investments in areas of concern.

"Consumers should also remember that the Mindful KiwiSaver list isn’t comprehensive and ‘other funds also meet the threshold of Mindful Money's criteria for responsible investment but have not yet joined the platform'.”

Kōura says ESG should not become an empty term

"ESG investing could be a powerful force. It’s a way for consumers to literally vote with their dollar and have their ethics and morals match up with their actions.

"The more consumers who chose ESG investing, the more likely we are to drive positive change in industries that cause a lot of harm. But with ESG being thrown around as an empty buzz term, not only are consumers being duped, so are future generations that have to live in the world we’re busy funding."

Kōura says it is usually the bureaucracy police and dislikes regulation for the sake of regulation, but the rising misuse of ESG warrants more rules and guidelines when advertising it.

"At the very least, clearer, and more readily available information to consumers around what a KiwiSaver providers' ESG policy actually entails."

Kōura says its ESG policy is not perfect either.

"Our holdings reports aren’t yet downloadable on our website (they’re coming), our website has fluffy marketing material about our ESG exclusions, and we’re adding to the noise when it comes to advertising our ESG investing stance."

However, it is "proud" of its policy.

"We employ a two-step process for choosing investments, we avoid the nastiest industries in totality and then we only pick the most sustainable and ethical of the remaining companies based on extensive MSCI research."

It says it will "continue to raise the bar for ourselves." 

Tags: ESG greenwashing

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