最初发表于 卡罗尔的资本, the print publication of the 卡罗尔管理学院 at 电子游戏软件. 点击这里阅读全文.
“那麦当劳呢?“教授 玛丽·艾伦·卡特 asked as she gestured toward a screen in the corner of the classroom after clicking on a new slide. Carter was asking a particular question about the world’s largest fast-food chain, because she was teaching a particular kind of accounting class—offered for the first time this past academic year and titled “ESG Reporting and Analysis: 会计 for a Changing World."
11月的那个早晨，在富尔顿110, the class was scrutinizing ratings of how companies perform on environmental, Society, 和治理（ESG）问题. Hands across the room went up when Carter asked about McDonald’s. A young man sporting a hooded gray sweatshirt answered, “They got an upgrade.” The student had deciphered from the data that the loftier rating for McDonald’s came about because two foreign countries abounding with golden arches ramped up their recycling requirements. 公司只是遵从了.
教授和约瑟夫·L. 斯威尼主席玛丽·艾伦·卡特
Trillions of dollars are rolling into ESG investment funds, also known as “sustainable” funds. Naturally, accountants and finance professionals are in the thick of it. They’re doing things like preparing disclosures mandated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, including reports on such ESG-related issues as risks associated with climate change. Hence the new course that exposes students to the “landscape of corporate sustainability reporting,正如卡特所说, 以及这门课标题中所宣称的“不断变化的世界”.
“这个领域有很多参与者——咨询师, 软件开发人员, 评级机构, 甚至是评级者的评级. 有很多运动正在发生,教授在课堂上说, herself an object in motion as she dashed from blackboard to screen with clicker in hand. Since shareholders are central players, Carter, who is the 卡罗尔学校’s Joseph L. Sweeney Chair, invited Leslie Samuelrich, MCAS 85, to speak at another class meeting. 她是绿色世纪资本管理公司的总裁, a family of mutual funds using ESG criteria to invest in companies. Green Century monitors and prods corporations on matters such as reducing the use of plastics and protecting tropical forests.
“ESG isn’t about how well companies are doing to protect the environment and serve society. It’s about measuring the risks that companies face, and how well they’re responding to those risks.”
Samuelrich tossed up what seemed like a softball: “What do you think is ESG investing?” A student in the back row said something about making a positive impact on the world, 对此，塞缪尔里奇温和地回答说：“没有。.她说，例如，ESG是关于风险评估的, whether a supply chain is exposed to climate hazards including extreme storms and coastal flooding. “ESG isn’t about how well companies are doing to protect the environment and serve society,她接着说. “It’s about measuring the risks that companies face, and how well they’re responding to those risks. 大多数人都没有意识到这一点.” Her point applies to both ESG enthusiasts and detractors at a time when Society investing is facing a political backlash from those who see it as “woke.”
Samuelrich offered a window on the typically adversarial process of advocating change with companies, often leading to showdowns between activist shareholders and corporate officers at annual spring meetings. She left her fellow Eagles with thoughts of a career in ESG, giving her email address and suggesting they follow her on Society media. “我们可以成为朋友，”她在笑声和掌声中说.
These and other students had another networking opportunity courtesy of Carter, Tara Pisani Gareau教授, 谁负责电子游戏软件的环境电子游戏正规平台项目, 还有凯文·奥康奈尔, MBA 96, 谁领导普华永道的ESG实践. They collaborated on a daylong October event in Fulton where members of O'Connell's staff helped 50 students unpack a carbon-emissions case study, 在下午的ESG职业小组讨论之前. 三年前, O’Connell had 12 staffers; now there are over 300, and he expects that number to more than triple in the next couple of years.
几周后, Carter’s class was discussing how companies get different ESG scores from different 评级机构. 一个因素是方法论, like how much weight the rating firm gives to one issue as distinct from another (say, 宜居工资vs零排放). Another factor is less palatable: Some 评级机构 offer consulting services and might go easy on a company they’re currying favor with. “So, there’s corruption in the ratings,” one student surmised. The professor smiled—“We like to call it conflict of interest.”
The probes continue in fall ’24 with two sections of Carter’s ESG class. 她和加罗的合作也是如此, 一个生物学家, are teaming up to teach a course in 电子游戏软件’s undergraduate core curriculum titled “Climate Change and Corporate America.
