We created an illustration about "ESG investment" in collaboration with the Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) .
This diagram answers questions about ESG investment such as "What is ESG and why is it important?" and provides a bird's-eye view of the overview. It is recommended for those who have heard the term ESG investment but do not know the details. Below is the diagram.
The reason I created this diagram about ESG investment was because I wrote the prologue to a book called Business Model 2.0 Illustrated. In the prologue, I explained ESG investment as a keyword that connects future corporate management and sociality.
At first, I also didn't understand why institutional investors like GPIF were making ESG investments. Simply put, ESG investment means "investing in good companies," so while it may have some social merit, I felt it lacked economic rationality.
But that way of thinking was wrong. When you're managing 100 trillion yen, the rise and fall of the stock price of each individual company is a very small issue, and it's like investing in the entire Japanese economy (although it's not just Japan). In that case, in order to generate a solid return, you have to invest in a way that eliminates risks that could shake the entire Japanese economy. That means that investing with consideration for E: environmental issues, S: social issues, and G: corporate governance issues that address these issues will lead to long-term returns. In other words, it's becoming increasingly difficult to ignore environmental and social issues. Here, too, we can see an aspect of why sociality should be emphasized.
Movements such as the SDGs and ESG are occurring worldwide, and companies are under pressure to become more beneficial to society in the medium to long term. In other words, there is no doubt that social responsibility will become increasingly important for companies.
- From the prologue of the Business Model 2.0 Illustrated Guide
Despite this vague explanation, after publishing the book I was contacted by GPIF, who wanted to spread understanding of ESG investing, so I created this illustration.
I would be very happy if people who have previously thought that ESG investing is not something that concerns them (or who have not known much about it at all) could return to their former selves and realize that this is a way of thinking that is necessary for society, and that it may also be relevant to them.
Furthermore, ESG investment is not a topic that can be summarized in a dozen or so diagrams, but we have omitted some of the more complex and technical content in order to convey the information as simply as possible to people who have not previously been aware of it.
Therefore, for more detailed information on ESG investment, please refer to other documents such as the ESG activity report.
https://www.gpif.go.jp/investment/esg/2019esg.html