Here’s the twist nobody talks about: Tesla scores 37/100 on ESG ratings, while Philip Morris (you know, the cigarette company) pulls an 84. Shell and Exxon? Also crushing Tesla on the ESG leaderboard.
Yep, you read that right.
Musk went off on Twitter about this ratings circus, and honestly? The data makes you think. ESG funds are flooding money into these “higher-rated” companies, but the logic feels backwards—tobacco kills millions annually, oil companies literally pump carbon, yet somehow they’re more “sustainable” than the EV pioneer actually building the future of transportation.
So what’s going on? Defenders say Tesla tanks on social and governance metrics even though it dominates environmentally. Critics smell something fishier: greenwashing theater. Companies gaming the system to boost scores, asset managers like BlackRock funneling capital based on flawed ratings, and a whole industry that looks good on paper but doesn’t match reality.
The real question: Is ESG investing just another investment trend dressed up as morality? Or is there actual substance buried under the performative activism?
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The ESG Paradox That's Got Musk Fuming
Here’s the twist nobody talks about: Tesla scores 37/100 on ESG ratings, while Philip Morris (you know, the cigarette company) pulls an 84. Shell and Exxon? Also crushing Tesla on the ESG leaderboard.
Yep, you read that right.
Musk went off on Twitter about this ratings circus, and honestly? The data makes you think. ESG funds are flooding money into these “higher-rated” companies, but the logic feels backwards—tobacco kills millions annually, oil companies literally pump carbon, yet somehow they’re more “sustainable” than the EV pioneer actually building the future of transportation.
So what’s going on? Defenders say Tesla tanks on social and governance metrics even though it dominates environmentally. Critics smell something fishier: greenwashing theater. Companies gaming the system to boost scores, asset managers like BlackRock funneling capital based on flawed ratings, and a whole industry that looks good on paper but doesn’t match reality.
The real question: Is ESG investing just another investment trend dressed up as morality? Or is there actual substance buried under the performative activism?