Book contents
- Reviews
- The Ethics of ESG
- The Ethics of ESG
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures and Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 ESG as Dead and Alive
- 2 Ethics by Proxy?
- 3 What Is the Purpose of ESG?
- 4 The Square Peg
- 5 Success, Law, and ESG
- 6 Reforming ESG Ratings
- 7 Responsibilization of Business and the Informational Ethics of ESG
- 8 The Ethics of ESG Integration
- 9 The Ethical Quandary of Monetary Valuation in ESG Impact Measurement
- Index
- References
8 - The Ethics of ESG Integration
Ethical Dilemmas of Quantification
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 December 2025
Book contents
- Reviews
- The Ethics of ESG
- The Ethics of ESG
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures and Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 ESG as Dead and Alive
- 2 Ethics by Proxy?
- 3 What Is the Purpose of ESG?
- 4 The Square Peg
- 5 Success, Law, and ESG
- 6 Reforming ESG Ratings
- 7 Responsibilization of Business and the Informational Ethics of ESG
- 8 The Ethics of ESG Integration
- 9 The Ethical Quandary of Monetary Valuation in ESG Impact Measurement
- Index
- References
Summary
Unlike previous approaches to sustainable investing, focused primarily on excluding companies from problematic sectors such as tobacco, the aim of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) integration is to incorporate the assessment of ESG characteristics within mainstream investment analysis. This aim has given rise to claims that ESG integration is not about value judgments but focuses only on neutral risk–return calculations. Against such framing, this chapter argue that various ethical concerns inevitably arise when considering the quantification process underlying the generation of data used in ESG integration approaches. Drawing on the literature related to quantification and commensuration, the chapter identifies four areas in which ethical concerns can arise: (1) the strong focus on financial materiality; (2) the aggregation of disparate and often incommensurable ESG data; (3) ESG measurement problems; and (4) the treatment of ESG data as a private good. The chapter shows how quantification processes in these four areas give cause for ethical concerns related to which aspects of sustainability are rendered visible or invisible; how power relations between different field actors are structured by quantification; and which organizations have access to the opportunities that prevailing processes of quantification afford.
Keywords
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- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Ethics of ESGCritically Assessing the Environmental, Social and Governance Movement, pp. 217 - 244Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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