ESG has its origins in a speech by U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan at the Davos World Economic Forum in 1999. In the first of this four part review of Terrence Keeley’s “Sustainable: Moving Beyond ESG to Impact Investing,” Rupert Darwall shows how this created ESG’s dual mandate that accounts for its success—and its unsustainability as an investment strategy.
“On my previous visits, I told you of my hopes for a creative partnership between the United Nations and the private sector,” the U.N. secretary-general, Kofi Annan, told business and finance leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 1999. “Without your know-how and resources, many of the UN’s objectives would remain elusive,” the secretary-general continued.
