Witold Henisz, Vice-Dean and Faculty Director of the ESG Initiative at the Wharton School, responds to Aswath Damodaran’s recent opinion piece “ESG is beyond redemption and deserves to RIP.” 

Where we differ most fundamentally with Damodaran is in his conclusion. He claims that ESG is beyond redemption. I see the ESG movement as navigating a shakeout in which virtue signalling, greenwashing and hype slowly lose out to the effort to add ESG factors to the playbook of activism, engagement, portfolio construction and factor models.