JUST Alpha

As shareholder demand for action on human capital and DEI metrics rises, we may be entering a new worker paradigm.

We recently marked the 3rd anniversary of Goldman Sachs’ JUST ETF, which tracks the JULCD Index based on our annual Rankings of the Russell 1000.

The small hedge fund secured at least two seats on ExxonMobil’s board last week, saying the oil and gas giant needed change at the top to evolve through the energy transition.

This week we look a report published by Morningstar which showcases the continued record-setting growth of sustainable asset flows. 

We look at new research from S&P Global on the rise Sustainability Linked Bonds, and how they are a sustainability solution that can work for industries that are hard to decarbonize.

Looking at the performance of the JUST 100, we see significant alpha relative to the average Russell 1000 company we rank.

We talked to Charlie Penner of the activist fund Engine No. 1 and Aeisha Mastagni of pension fund giant CalSTRS about the “Reenergize Exxon” campaign.

In this Chart of the Week, we take a look at our charitable giving data to analyze whether there are meaningful trends around the ROE of Russell 1000 companies.

This week, we highlight how investment strategies are rapidly realigning to account for climate change.

This week’s chart from the Wall Street Journal explores the recent tidal wave of ESG funds and dives into the average expense ratios of U.S. equity ETFs.

More investors are recognizing that investing can serve a dual purpose – to both reach financial goals and to perpetuate core values by supporting companies doing right by all shareholders.

Companies that have invested in their workforces have been more successful than those that haven’t for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This week, we look at Morningstar’s most recent analysis Jackie Cook, diving into the C-suite Gender Pay Gap.

With the societal and legal move towards decarbonization, utilities that emit a comparatively high amount of carbon are challenged by stranded assets and/or potentially high costs to upgrade equipment.

Companies that don’t pay their workers well need to take up more debt (i.e. more risk) to have the same returns on equity as those that pay their workers well.

We take a look at our 2021 ranked companies that had controversies across all of our various stakeholders to show that, unsurprisingly, companies with fewer controversies slightly outperform those with more.

Here are five of our most viewed ESG-focused features from 2020.

How companies and investors can lead in building a more just and inclusive economy that works for all Americans.

Companies increasingly face the prospect of needing to incorporate carbon emissions and emission reductions when doing internal cost-benefit analysis for new projects. The chart from Bloomberg Green goes deeper.

In light of last week’s analysis of the 2021 JUST Universe specific to return on equity, this week we dive into the new list of companies constituting the JUST 100, our annual list of America’s most just companies.

We revisit a past Chart of the Week to show that the companies that support their workers continue to outperform the market.

In this week’s Chart of the Week, we take a look at the JUST Industry leaders across our universe to examine their strong outperformance in this economic recovery.

We sat down with two of the ESG’s most prominent leaders –John Goldstein, the head of the Sustainable Finance Group at Goldman Sachs and Megan Starr, the Global Head of Impact for The Carlyle Group, to discuss the future of ESG. 

Companies that support customers by producing non-harmful and quality products, emphasizing privacy, using fair pricing, offering equal treatment, and more, outperform their competitors by 20.7% .

Arguments in support of shareholder primacy and against stakeholder capitalism are out of sync with the voice of the American public, institutional investors, shareholders, and corporations themselves.