ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance)

The three categories of concern in SRI are abbreviated ESG:

• Environment
• Social justice
• Corporate Governance

SRIplanner.com, and the SRI industry, use ESG as categories to organize financial analysis and planning. Below are brief introductions to ESG.
 
ENVIRONMENTAL concerns may be the most obvious of the categories given the daily news regarding global warming and pollution. For example, carbon dioxide and the other greenhouse gases emitted by autos, manufacturing, and farming are seen as a serious threat to all people. Given that the environmental movement has been active for several decades, there are many great options for investing in an environmentally friendly way.
 
SOCIAL concerns focus on how a business affects society. Also known as social justice, this area of SRI is where people, societies, and cultures of the world are accounted for and protected. Issues included in this category are sweat shops, predatory lending, native lands, and various forms of corporate hoarding.
 
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE is a lesser known, but potentially the most potent of the SRI categories. Here we are talking about the way corporations are managed. Issues here include corporate transparency, executive compensation, and general corporate decision making.
This was a brief description of ESG categories, check out the detail descriptions of each.