5-Globe Medalists by Category

One useful way of looking at the distribution of the new Morningstar Sustainability Ratings is by Morningstar Category. For people who are concerned about sustainability and also looking for a fund to fill a certain slot in their portfolio--say, a large-growth fund, or a mid-cap fund--the new ratings can be very helpful.

There are some limitations. For example, very few small-cap funds currently have Sustainability Ratings, because relatively few of their individual stock holdings are rated on environmental, social, and governance, or ESG, criteria by Sustainalytics. Only one domestic small-cap fund (

There are plenty of large- and mid-cap funds with Sustainability Ratings, though. For each of the six large-cap and mid-cap Morningstar Style Box categories, here are some U.S.-sold open-end funds that earn the top Sustainability Rating of High (5 globes), focusing on those that also earn Morningstar Analyst Ratings of Gold, Silver, or Bronze. This is not an exhaustive list, but it gives some idea of the types of funds that look good according to our sustainability criteria.

Large Value

None of the large-value funds with a Gold rating also have the top Sustainability Rating, nor do most of the largest funds in the category. But a couple of Silver-rated funds with more than $10 billion do earn 5 globes:

Large Blend

The large-blend category contains numerous intentional ESG funds that get the highest Morningstar Sustainability Rating, including

Large Growth

The large-growth category also includes a few explicitly ESG funds with top Sustainability Ratings, such as Bronze-rated

Mid-Cap Value

Among the mid-cap value funds that earn the top Sustainability Rating is the category’s biggest fund, the Silver-rated

Mid-Cap Blend

The most prominent mid-cap blend fund with a 5-globe Morningstar Sustainability Rating is Silver-rated

Mid-Cap Growth

The two biggest funds in the mid-cap growth category to earn High Sustainability Ratings are Gold-rated