The last few years have been characterized by an ever-increasing awareness of man's influence on the planet's climate. Businesses are facing a major challenge to transform traditional companies into environmentally friendly counterparts. Parallel to this, there are investors who see the opportunity in the transition while realizing their own responsibility in it. From investors prioritizing only monetary gain, many have now begun to implement ethical principles in their investment decisions. With the increased demand for sustainable investments, tools have been developed with the aim of helping investors select sustainable investment options. One of these is the ESG rating. The rating is based on sustainability reporting from companies and is set based on how well the relevant company performs based on a number of sustainability aspects. Although research suggests that an ESG-based strategy in investment should lead to higher returns at less risk, strong criticism is directed at the rating's validity to measure actual sustainability. The purpose of the study is to analyze, through qualitative interviews with people active in sustainability work and investments, whether the ESG rating can be used for investors who want to invest sustainably. The result shows that the ESG rating alone does not constitute a sufficient basis for an investor to make a decision. The respondents believe that sustainability reporting is deficient in its current design and that the rating is a simplification of reality where valuable nuances disappear. They also believe that the increased demand for sustainable investments can lead to so-called greenwashing.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:sh-50848 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Jörnlind, Petter, Wistedt, William |
| Publisher | Södertörns högskola, Institutionen för samhällsvetenskaper |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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