On 08 March 2023, K2 Integrity and Chimera Capital Partners, LLC, hosted a webinar highlighting their partnership to expand Integrity 2’s ESG certification to Chimera’s relationships in the institutional investment industry. During the program, K2 Integrity’s Andrew Rabinowitz and Melanie Steiner, together with Joelle Wyser-Pratte, founder of Chimera Capital Partners, LLC, discussed the partnership and the future of ESG. To watch a recording of the full webinar, click here.
With Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and climate change disclosure requirements on the rise, investors are demanding asset managers be transparent in their investment process. To avoid the perception of greenwashing, firms and funds must certify to the market that their ESG commitments are trustworthy and valid. Regardless of one’s views of ESG, governance is critical to ensuring funds, fund managers, and companies are doing what they say they are doing, following rules and regulations, and not misleading regulators or clients.
The future of ESG is one of growth. If you look at the companies within the S&P 500, 90% have some disclosure or reporting on ESG. Of those within the Russell 1000, 70% have ESG reporting. Respected sources have valued ESG assets at $18.4 trillion in 2023, a number that is expected to grow to $33.4 trillion in 2026. Clearly, ESG is important to individual investors and to the marketplace.
K2 Integrity’s independent ESG certification was developed in response to this growth, as means to help the investment industry prevent greenwashing. The goal is to provide a roadmap to validate claims made by funds, fund managers, and companies around ESG. In addition to working with Chimera Capital, K2 Integrity has partnered with academics, subject-matter experts, and firms with like-minded ESG goals to help develop its certification framework and address the following questions: What is social change? What does sustainability investing mean? How do we de-politicize some of the issues? How can we raise the bar and get to best practices? Tackling these questions can make us a better fiduciary to clients.
The Integrity 2 ESG certification is a first-of-its-kind solution for the institutional investment industry. It is focused on consistency and transparency and facilitates reviews of a fund’s governance, statements, investment programs, and risk profile to ensure it is providing correct and complete information to regulators and those who want to invest in a company or asset. A fund that undergoes this process also gets insights into any regulatory gaps found in the review. The Integrity 2 ESG certification works across all funds and jurisdictions to meet funds where they are. Click here to learn more.
