What Is Greenwashing, and Answers to Your Other Questions
Sometimes it’s an exaggeration of ESG intentions, but greenwashing can also stem from different definitions of sustainability.
Sustainable Investing
Sustainable investing is an investment approach that uses environmental, social, and corporate governance criteria. Explore our insights and see how you can incorporate sustainability into your portfolio.
How Did Large-Cap Sustainable Stock Funds Perform in Q3?
Stock-pickers led the way, particularly high-conviction funds.
Can Homeownership Really Close the Racial Wealth Gap?
Here are three perspectives on whether homeownership is an effective way to shrink the racial wealth gap.
Tesla's Growing Investor Revolt
Despite the stock's meteoric rise, shareholders are pushing back against Tesla's management and board.
Labor Department Proposal to Clear Way for Retirement Plans to Consider ESG
We believe this new rule is a step in the right direction for retirement savers.
ESG Keeps Pace in Q3
Morningstar's sustainability indexes generally keep up with the broad market for the quarter, owing mainly to technology.
Latest Research
Funds
Investing in Times of Climate Change
See what's inside climate-aware funds and how they fit into your portfolio.
Insights
Discover The New Sustainability
Read about our vision for the future of long-term investing.
Funds
U.S. Funds Sustainability Landscape
Track the growth, performance, and changing nature of this emerging fund group.
Funds
Global Sustainable Fund Flows Report
Explore activity in the global sustainable funds universe within the past quarter.
Insights
Hidden ESG Risks May Lurk in Your Portfolio
Examining Morningstar's equity index range highlights unexpected pockets of ESG risk.
Climate
What Climate Litigation Means for the Oil and Gas Litigation
With a global economic focus on recovery, the oil and gas industry faces a growing wave of shareholder activism.
Green Linings: A Conversation on Climate Change
Jeremy Grantham says the pandemic taught investors to think more long term, while speaking with Morningstar's CEO Kunal Kapoor.
How Can Climate Aware Funds Fit Into Your Portfolio
Our analysis shows how these funds stack up on specific climate-related metrics.
Are ESG and Private Equity Competing Ideologies?
This potentially contentious intersection will likely be the focus of some of the most heated investment debates of the next decade.
Is Your Portfolio Fighting or Fueling Deforestation?
It’s more than just the companies running the bulldozers, and some big investors are taking action.
Social Sustainability
How the SEC Can Make Relationship Summaries Useful for Investors
Focused enforcement and small changes to the Instructions could go a long way toward empowering investors.
How Are Hispanic Households Saving for the Future?
Explaining low savings rates among Hispanic households.
Robinhood Enters the Realm of Proxy Voting
Here's how the popular trading platform's recent acquisition is part of a bigger trend--and how it impacts investors.
More North American Firms Are Disclosing Diversity Data, New Study Shows
Despite a more than threefold increase, most companies still don't publicly release their diversity data.
How Should Baby Bonds Be Invested?
These tools hold enormous promise, but there are some implementation challenges.
Get Started With The New Sustainability
When investing success meets personalized impact, you get something new. Download The New Sustainability content bundle to join us as we explore the future of long-term investing.
Morningstar ESG Data
More Articles and Videos about Sustainable Investing
BlackRock’s Move to Open Up Proxy Voting to Clients Removes a Giant Rubber Stamp
Large investors in BlackRock’s index funds will now be able to vote on shareholder resolutions themselves.
Leslie Norton
Leslie Norton
Complaints About ESG Ratings Reflect 'Maturing, Robust' Industry, Morningstar's Jantzi Says
Founder of Sustainalytics says ratings diversity is sign of a healthy market. 'Market wants ESG data.'
Leslie Norton
Leslie Norton
The Morningstar Sustainable Investing Framework
Clear terminology leads to greater understanding of an evolving area.
Jon Hale
Jon Hale
Sustainable Investing Works
It's about managing risk, not 'goodness.'
Leslie Norton
Leslie Norton
As New Critiques of Sustainable Investing Emerge, Don’t Dump Your ESG Fund
Sustainalytics analyst says critiques fail to understand what ESG has already accomplished.
Simon MacMahon
Simon MacMahon
What Investors Should Know About the $26 Billion Opioid Settlement
We review potential impact on valuation for the four companies involved.
Karen Wallace
Karen Wallace
It's Not Either/Or: How Investors Meet Both Financial and DEI Objectives
Employer-managed plans can offer both high returns and an opportunity to support DEI.
Michael Thompson
Michael Thompson
Racial Incidents Spiked in 2020 Despite More Diversity Initiatives, New Study Shows
A Sustainalytics report assessed company involvement in controversies related to race and ethnicity.
Sachin Nagarajan
Sachin Nagarajan
High Yield Means Higher Sustainability Risk
Energy stocks can fuel poor environment profiles in dividend strategies. Even so, sustainability and income aren't mutually exclusive.
Lauren Solberg
Lauren Solberg
About Sustainable Investing
“Sustainable investing” is an umbrella term for lots of different strategies. Institutional investors call it ESG; retail investors might see it labelled as “impact investing” or SRI (socially responsible investing). Whatever the epithet, sustainable investing has arrived as something everyone should consider on their journey toward investing success, and understanding how to evaluate and when to incorporate sustainability factors into the investing process is an opportunity to find new ways to add value and find that success.
But like any new investing trend, sustainable investing can also lead to overpricing, exaggerated values, and predatory sales and marketing practices.