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avid Calusdian, Vice Chair of the NIRI 2024 Annual Conference Committee and President, Sharon Merrill Advisors, moderated a robust discussion about environmental, social and governance (ESG)


issues titled, “Beyond ‘Green Hushing’: Thinking Long-Term About ESG Communications” at the conference. Four panelists offered diverse perspectives, including Chris


Benjamin, Director of Corporate Sustainability at PG&E; Aaron Bertinetti, Head of ESG for Investor Relations at JPMorgan Chase; Samantha D’Amore, Portfolio Manager at Trillium Asset Manage- ment; and Justin Danhof, Executive Vice President and Head of Corporate Governance at Strive Asset Management. Calusdian asked the panelists about any perceived shifts in thinking regarding ESG reporting in light of the recent trend toward “green hushing,” where some companies are purposely keeping quiet about their sustainability goals given a changed political environment. Tis is in stark contrast to years past when companies would fear being accused of “greenwashing”—the de- ceptive marketing practice that misleads the public into thinking a company is more environmentally friendly than it actually is. The panelists agreed that companies are generally well-


intentioned in their ESG reporting even while trends and external factors may cause them to periodically shift their approaches. Speaking from the corporate side, Bertinetti observed, “It’s


like a pendulum, and ESG reporting is swinging up in a different direction at the moment. It will swing back eventually. Te swing is a good thing because there is a lot of misinformation about what ESG is. Te process helps focus on what is important about ESG, what is material to the value of your stock, and gets rid of some of the other fluff.” Benjamin agreed, noting that his Sustainability Team at PG&E,


a California utility, operates in a state that has very progressive clean energy policies. “For our sector, these issues continue to be material for our


business,” he said. “Recent discussions have helped bring more attention to these issues, both in terms of material risks as well as opportunities.” From the investor side, Danhof pointed to the lack of a single definition of ESG as a major challenge. “It’s hard for there to be an anti-ESG movement when you can’t even define what ESG is,” he explained. “For a shareholder activist, it means one thing for someone voting proxy ballots and something else for an asset manager. There isn’t one unified definition of ESG, which makes this topic ripe for discussion but also hard to grasp.” D’Amore added, “Sustainable investing is not new. How it


26 FA L L 2024 ■ IR UPDAT E


"ESG REPORTING IS SWINGING UP IN A DIFFERENT DIRECTION AT THE MOMENT. IT WILL SWING BACK EVENTUALLY." - AARON BERTINETTI, JPMORGAN CHASE


is labeled is just a lot of marketing. At Trillium we have been solely focused on sustainable investing since 1982 and I agree it is healthy to identify the material issues that impact companies.”


Communicating About ESG Calusdian asked the two corporate panelists to speak about how their ESG communications changed during the past few years. Bertinetti gave his perspective on how ESG relates to financial


returns and reviewed what JPMorgan Chase is doing to capital- ize on it. “Tere is a very clear definition of ESG that came out of the


investment world, which is that ESG is about the environmental, social and governance risks and opportunities that have a material impact on your company’s long term shareholder value. Tat’s the dictionary definition. “We had marketers for investment providers and others who


figured they couldn’t sell an acronym for services without tap- ping into emotions. Tat’s also how politics works. So we had the inevitable pushback between how ESG is perceived versus what it is actually used for by investors and companies. In communicating with our investors, we’re very focused on non-financial factors that can have a long-term financial impact on the value of our firm. “When we look at the amount of capital globally that needs to be deployed to address the transition to clean energy, that’s


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