GraniteShares ETP : Study reveals UK retail investors/share traders are increasingly concerned about greenwashing
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Will Rhind, Founder and CEO at GraniteShares ETP
- Nearly half say ESG is important in relation to share buying but only one in three looks at ESG ratings when they trade
Retail investors are becoming increasingly concerned about greenwashing by companies, but most do not look at ESG ratings when trading shares, new research from ETP provider GraniteShares shows.
The study found more than two out of three (67%) retail investors say they are concerned about greenwashing – companies making false or misleading statements about their environmental commitment. Around a quarter (23%) say they are very concerned about companies greenwashing in order to boost the attractiveness of their shares.
That concern may be translating into how importantly ESG is rated by retail share traders and how much attention they pay to ESG ratings.
GraniteShares research shows a lack of interest in ESG ratings – just one in three (35%) say they look at them when buying or trading shares. Around half (51%) say they don’t look at ESG ratings while 14% don’t know whether they look.
Around half (45%) of retail investors say ESG is important in relation to their share buying but just 17% say it is very important. By contrast 37% say it is neither important nor unimportant while 18% say it is unimportant with 10% saying ESG is not at all important.
GraniteShares offers UK sophisticated investors a suite of index ETPs tracking FAANG stocks and a suite of Short and Leveraged Single Stock Daily ETPs tracking some of the most popular companies in the UK, US, France and Italy.
Will Rhind, Founder and CEO at GraniteShares said: “It is clearly good that some companies are taking their ESG responsibilities seriously but there is a strong sense from this research that investors feel claims about ESG and the environment are being overstated”.
“Retail investors are very much concerned about greenwashing and substantial numbers of retail investors regard ESG as an important topic”.
“However, most retail investors do not read ESG ratings when buying or trading shares despite the huge focus from financial services companies on providing them.”
Source: ETFWorld.co.uk
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