Babson College, Wellesley, Mass., said Tuesday that its board voted to integrate environmental, social and governance and diversity, equity and inclusion factors into investment decisions for its $500 million portfolio.
The decision was made at the board's February meeting.
When selecting money managers to hire, the approach they "take to ESG integration in their investment process and the diverse nature of their firms will be part of the investment committee's decision-making process," said Bruce Herring, chairman of Babson's investment committee.
"ESG integration by investment managers is one of many factors the investment committee will consider when making its decisions," Mr. Herring said via email. "Since ESG is not a simple or easily measurable space, we will be evaluating the approach to ESG integration by the managers and how they integrate it into their investment processes."
Mr. Herring said he expects this somewhat qualitative evaluation process to become more quantitative over time as managers become more transparent with their disclosures in ESG investments.
