“More than green chitchat”

Sustainability criteria, such as climate protection, are becoming more and more important for major companies, and new developments in data transparency increase the pressure on them to act accordingly, Jan Willmroth writes in Süddeutsche Zeitung. Former investment banker Andreas Feiner, for instance, works for the Frankfurt-based investment company Arabesque which, with its computer programme S-Ray, aims at measuring a company’s record of complying with the so-called ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) standards, Willmroth writes. “ESG criteria will become indicators, just like the stock price-profit relationship or the dividend yield”, Feiner argues. A tendency towards “green finance” topics could be seen in Germany’s presidency priorities for the upcoming G20 summit, as well as in the work of the EU’s Expert Group on Sustainable Finance, he adds.

Read the article in German here.