ESG investing insights with Baron Capital's James Stone, Ep #38

Invested In Climate

Today’s episode focuses on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing. What began as a fringe interest in socially responsible investing grew at an astonishing rate and is now completely mainstream, considering the ESG performance of companies. According to a PWC report from last November, ESG investing will grow over the next three years to reach over $30 trillion dollars. That’d be over 20% of all assets under management and a real force influencing how well companies act on climate change, amongst many other issues.

But ESG can be messy and confusing. To learn more about what it actually is, how it's distinguished from impact investing, why it became politically controversial in the US last year, how it’s performed for investors, and how it's likely to change in the future, I sat down with James Stone, VP of ESG Research at Baron Capital. Jamie offered a really clear overview and I learned a ton. Hope you enjoy this one as much as I did.

In today’s episode, we cover:

• [3:23] James' background & his experience with ESG investing
• [5:23] Baron Capital & what they specialize in
• [6:33] The ESG market today & trends
• [9:53] Overall interest in ESG investing & how it's been changing in recent years
• [11:03] Who is actually interested in ESG investing
• [14:44] Baron’s ESG commentary & the World Economic Forum study on top global risks
• [20:26] The positive feedback loop due to growing ESG investors & capital deployed
• [25:09] The impact of policy developments related to climate investing within ESG
• [27:49] The political backlash & controversy of ESG
• [31:22] The impacts of ESG investing on companies
• [33:46] The SEC climate disclosure rule change
• [35:17] Policy developments that Jamie is watching for this year
• [35:41] ​​Thoughts on ESG investing opportunities this year & longer-term
• [36:45] Things for climate-focused investors to consider
• [38:40] How listeners can get involved

Resources Mentioned

• Baron Capital

Connect with James Stone

• Connect with James on LinkedIn

Connect with Jason Rissman

• On LinkedIn
• On Twitter

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