According to a survey by ESG data provider GaiaLens, just 23% of asset owners (AOs) are happy with ESG index providers, while many are dissatisfied with data and ratings services. Over a quarter said ESG index providers’ methodologies were “unclear” or “not robust”, with more than one in five considering the “accuracy of existing ESG scoring and rating systems” to be a to be a major concern. Nearly one in five AOs said more evenly balanced indexing of all ESG factors is needed, as many currently focused too heavily on climate. Thirty-six percent were concerned about social and environmental data gaps from their asset managers, while 14% of AOs said index providers were not “focusing on the areas of ESG which most concern us”. Nearly 16% think ESG indexes are delivering investment performance “below what our investors expect”. Gordon Tveito-Duncan, GaiaLens co-founder, said: “Environmental data over recent years has left [AOs] exposed in terms of the S & G performance reporting. Four in every five of the largest asset owners were experiencing data quantity or quality issues and/or struggling to establish a consistent, uniform method of valuing and scoring the ESG performance of their portfolios.”
