Want your money to have a positive impact? What to know about ESG investing

John Bai, chief investment officer at NEI Investments, says investing in environmental, social and governance funds is very similar to regular investing, but there's an extra step. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout

Investing in funds that align with your values such as supporting companies fighting climate change is much more accessible today, but experts say it takes research and diligence to determine if your money is actually working for a good cause.

“There’s a whole cohort of young investors who have come to the realization that you can invest in a way that’s consistent with the values that you have,” said John Bai, chief investment officer at NEI Investments.

The environmental, social and governance-focused investment landscape has changed and matured over the years with way more options now on the table, Bai said.

Steering away from investing in tobacco, ammunition or fossil fuel companies to those championing ESG issues can be appealing to investors but many don’t know where to start — or what to look for when picking funds that support a good cause. Also, not all ESG funds are made the same.

Bai said investing with an ESG focus is not much different from regular investing. Similar to any investment decision-making process, an investor would go through a laundry list of their goals, financial plan, risk tolerance, asset allocation, and exposure to stocks and bonds.

But there’s an extra step when investing responsibly.

“What you need to do as an investor is to write down the values that are most important to you,” Bai said. “Then, what you need to do is read the disclosures of each fund.”

A low-cost, diversified portfolio can be an entry into sustainable investments, said Tim Nash, an investment coach at Good Investing, which helps people understand sustainable investing.

“These are going to be what I call ‘doing-less-evil’ ETFs,” he said. “Our goal here is to earn market rates of return while getting rid of things that don’t align with our values.”

Nash said it’s important to see what’s inside the fund and the companies it holds.

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He warned some ESG-branded funds could still hold equities that aren’t completely aligned with an individual’s values.

For example, an ESG fund might exclude a tobacco company but keep Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. despite the retailer selling tobacco at its convenience stores, Nash said.

For a long time, many companies promoted themselves as being climate-friendly but that has changed. Companies have started to be more careful about their environmental and governance claims after the federal government tightened laws around sustainability disclosures last year.

“The key principle of regulations has been: Tell us what you do and do what you tell us,” Bai said.

He added every sustainable fund is required to tell the investor what ESG means to them and their philosophy, and explain it in their disclosures.

“The easiest way to ensure that what you’re investing in aligns with your values is to read those disclosures,” Bai said.

And ask more questions. For example, question how a business that requires access to water or abundant energy approaches the issue, Bai said.

He said investors need to think and ask questions like these: Does the business want the cheapest energy possible? Do they take access to the water for granted? Are they working with the local communities to make sure there’s fairness in terms of human capital? Are they paying fair wages? How are you thinking about child labour and supply chain?

The answers will give you a wider lens into how the fund managers think about risks and opportunities, Bai said.

Experts say there’s a myth about ESG investments that people often have to forgo gains.

“That’s not true at all,” Nash said.

“The goal is really to track the standard benchmarks … to earn the same rate of return while doing it aligned with your values.”

He said investing in ESG funds is a spectrum. A small step toward ESG-focused funds would not make an investor lose out on returns but the farther you go along the spectrum and cut more companies out of the fund, the returns could deviate — with returns a little bit higher some years while lower in others, Nash said.

But the long-term goal is to earn the same rate of return and that’s still achievable, he said.

For instance, divestment from fossil fuels isn’t really going to sacrifice huge gains as the industry makes up 3.8 per cent of the global market. If the energy sector outperforms though, investors are going to miss out on the high — ever so slightly, Nash said.

Political risks can also overshadow ESG funds. An example is when the Alberta government temporarily paused approvals for renewable energy projects two years ago, or the ongoing uncertainty with U.S. President Donald Trump’s penchant to favour fossil fuels over renewable energy.

Nash said if investors are worried about political risk, they can opt for broader funds that focus on cleantech — a combination of energy, water, recycling and health tech, for example.

An investor can consider three main approaches to ESG investing, Bai said.

The first level is exclusion, he said.

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“That means that these funds will just exclude bad actors in the way that they define bad actors — no cluster munition weapon providers, no tobacco, no nuclear are very common exclusions,” Bai said.

Then comes the integrated approach, which looks into how the company approaches ESG issues and if they’re aligned with an investor’s philosophy of a company creating long-term value.

A non-traditional and niche approach would include impact investments that focus on direct impacts. Those investments go into non-profits and co-ops, for instance, Nash said.

“But this is where we might be sacrificing returns, we might earn a little bit less or be taking a little more risk than we would have otherwise,” he said.

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Ritika Dubey, The Canadian Press

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 24, 2025.