January 20, 2020
Article
Harvard Business Review Digital Articles

Larry Fink Isn't Going to Read Your Sustainability Report

Format:Electronic

Abstract

In his recent annual letter to CEOs, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink makes the stunning claim that climate change has brought us to “the edge of a fundamental reshaping of finance” and “in the near future … a significant reallocation of capital.” BlackRock has committed to “place sustainability at the center of [its] investment approach.” Although BlackRock cannot divest of companies in its index funds, Fink makes it clear that they will be “increasingly disposed to vote against management and board directors when companies are not making sufficient progress on sustainability-related disclosures and the business practices and plans underlying them.” This is a warning from the world’s largest shareholder that public companies dare not ignore. If Fink is correct in predicting that capital will increasingly be allocated to those companies with the most sustainable business models, then investors will need new sources of data to understand and anticipate the economic significance of sustainability strategies.