Alternative Thinking

Responsible Asset Selection: ESG in Portfolio Decisions

4Q19

Topics - ESG Investing

Read Time - 10min

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Responsible Asset Selection: ESG in Portfolio Decisions
  • Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations are an increasingly important input in investors’ portfolio decisions. We discuss how these considerations may be incorporated in a portfolio and how they may affect risk and return outcomes.
  • ESG is a broad term that many investors may define differently. Thus, we begin by outlining a framework designed to clarify how ESG may enter an investment process.
  • We focus here on security selection, highlighting the distinction between using ESG signals to enhance the investment view of a security’s risk or return potential and incorporating explicit non-investment objectives into a portfolio.
  • Finally, we leverage a recently developed ESG-efficient frontier framework to show how ESG integration and screening lend themselves to a quantitative investment process and to quantify their expected impact on performance in several practical applications.

 



About the Portfolio Solutions Group

The Portfolio Solutions Group (PSG) aims to help AQR clients achieve better portfolio outcomes and provide unique insights to the broader investment community.

We thank Paras Bakrania, Lukasz Pomorski, and Alex Sanborn for their work on this paper. We also thank Jordan Brooks, Antti Ilmanen, Thomas Maloney, Toby Moskowitz, Chris Palazzolo, Lasse Pedersen, Scott Richardson, and Dan Villalon for their helpful comments and Ing-Chea Ang and Jatin Bhatia for their excellent research assistance.

 

 

This document has been provided to you solely for information purposes and does not constitute an offer or solicitation of an offer or any advice or recommendation to purchase any securities or other financial instruments and may not be construed as such. The factual information set forth herein has been obtained or derived from sources believed by the author and AQR Capital Management, LLC (“AQR”) to be reliable but it is not necessarily all-inclusive and is not guaranteed as to its accuracy and is not to be regarded as a representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the information’s accuracy or completeness, nor should the attached information serve as the basis of any investment decision. This document is intended exclusively for the use of the person to whom it has been delivered by AQR, and it is not to be reproduced or redistributed to any other person. The information set forth herein has been provided to you as secondary information and should not be the primary source for any investment or allocation decision. Past performance is not a guarantee of future performance. 

This material is not research and should not be treated as research. This paper does not represent valuation judgments with respect to any financial instrument, issuer, security or sector that may be described or referenced herein and does not represent a formal or official view of AQR. The views expressed reflect the current views as of the date hereof and neither the author nor AQR undertakes to advise you of any changes in the views expressed herein. 

The information contained herein is only as current as of the date indicated, and may be superseded by subsequent market events or for other reasons. Charts and graphs provided herein are for illustrative purposes only. The information in this presentation has been developed internally and/or obtained from sources believed to be reliable; however, neither AQR nor the author guarantees the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of such information. Nothing contained herein constitutes investment, legal, tax or other advice nor is it to be relied on in making an investment or other decision. There can be no assurance that an investment strategy will be successful. Historic market trends are not reliable indicators of actual future market behavior or future performance of any particular investment which may differ materially, and should not be relied upon as such. 

The information in this paper may contain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events, targets, forecasts or expectations regarding the strategies described herein, and is only current as of the date indicated. There is no assurance that such events or targets will be achieved, and may be significantly different from that shown here. The information in this document, including statements concerning financial market trends, is based on current market conditions, which will fluctuate and may be superseded by subsequent market events or for other reasons. 

Sustainable investing is qualitative and subjective by nature, and there is no guarantee that the environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) criteria utilized, judgment exercised, or techniques employed, by AQR will be successful, or that they will reflect the beliefs or values of any one particular investor. Certain information used to evaluate ESG factors or a company’s commitment to, or implementation of, responsible practices is obtained through voluntary or third-party reporting, which may not be accurate or complete. ESG investing can limit the investment opportunities available to a portfolio, such as the exclusion of certain securities or issuers for nonfinancial reasons and, therefore, the portfolio may perform differently than or underperform other similar portfolios that do not apply ESG factors.