October 2026 Newsletter
News & Commentaries by Ron Robins
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New October Podcast
October 2026 Sustainable Stock and ETF Picks
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Can an investor be too big to care about ethics?. “Can a country be too rich to be an ethical investor? Can a company be too big to be excluded from an investor’s portfolio?”
[COMMENTARY] The article is a good discussion of the situation. One question that arises from the article is that once a fund becomes so large and has to invest ‘everywhere ‘, can it maintain its ethical and sustainable investment credentials?
Can an investor be too big to care about ethics? By Richard Milne, October 28, 2026, Financial Times, UK.
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Anticompetitive Corporate Governance. “A small number of institutional investors now hold substantial positions across the public equity market, including in competing companies, and wield significant influence through voting, engagement, and market-wide stewardship policies. Their views of governance best practices often converge—a convergence reinforced by investor coalitions, trade associations, and proxy advisers.”
[COMMENTARY] The issues cited in this paper should concern all investors, especially those who like to invest using an ethical perspective.
Anticompetitive Corporate Governance, Danielle A. Chaim (Bar-Ilan University), October 22, 2026, Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, USA.
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Asset owners embed sustainability deeper into portfolios: LSEG. “The percentage of asset owners incorporating sustainability considerations into their investment strategies has risen from 73% in 2025 to 84% in 2026, and another 15% are evaluating whether to incorporate them, according to the most recent edition of the London Stock Exchange Group’s asset owners survey, released last month.”
[COMMENTARY] Political pressure to stop companies from incorporating ESG and sustainability into their operations is failing! The unmistakable truth is it pays companies to do so.
Asset owners embed sustainability deeper into portfolios: LSEG, by Lauren Schenkman. October 20, 2026, ESG Dive, USA.
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Why defence is not a justified ESG position. “Unfortunately, the purpose of arms is not just to provide a deterrent. They can destroy military infrastructure and incapacitate enemy combatants. But they also maim and kill non-combatant civilians, destroy civilian infrastructure, and release toxic chemicals into the air and water supply. Any argument for investing in weapons manufacturing must contend with this.”
[COMMENTARY] This is a thoughtful article arguing that investing in defence stocks is rarely warranted for ESG (ethical) investors. Read the article and then answer the question: do you agree?
Why defence is not a justified ESG position, by Neville White and Alan Whittle, October 15, 2026, FT Advisor, UK.
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The ESG Risks Clouding the Magnificent Seven’s AI Boom. “AI has supercharged growth for the market’s biggest tech companies, but several challenges create risks for investors.”
[COMMENTARY] Aside from the fact that many investors consider most AI stocks overpriced, few are factoring in the ESG risks inherent in these stocks, says Morningstar Sustainalytics.
The ESG Risks Clouding the Magnificent Seven’s AI Boom, by
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Do green taxonomies really increase sustainable investing? Maybe not. “Green taxonomies aim to spur sustainable investments, but their effectiveness is open for debate.”
[COMMENTARY] This is a good discussion on green taxonomies. They are fine in theory, but saying that they spur sustainable investments is difficult to prove. Now Canada is trying its hand at one.
Do green taxonomies really increase sustainable investing? Maybe not. By Sophie Cousineau, October 13, 2026, Corporate Knights, Canada.
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Supporting decarbonisation: Why transition and sustainability-linked bonds can and should co-exist. “The sustainable debt market is expanding beyond traditional green bonds into sustainability‑linked bonds and transition bonds, widening financing options for a broader range of sectors and activities.”
[COMMENTARY] I expected that as the green bond market matures, offerings would become more differentiated. This analysis captures that trend and its implications for investors.
Supporting decarbonisation: Why transition and sustainability-linked bonds can and should co-exist, by Jamison Friedland, August 19, 2026, BNP Paribas.
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Generation gap in ESG investing widens as performance worries increase. “The gap between older and younger investors that consider ESG when investing has increased to its widest ever, according to the Association of Investment Companies’ (AIC) latest ESG Attitudes Tracker.”
[COMMENTARY] Younger investors in most Western countries are moving politically more to the left. That means more social causes, environmental concerns, and so on. Thus, their investments favour companies or ETFs that incorporate greater sustainability and ESG characteristics.
Generation gap in ESG investing widens as performance worries increase, by Michael Nelson, October 12, 2026, Investment Week, UK.
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ERM research reveals sharp drop in investor confidence in quality of data offered by ESG ratings providers. “Despite declining perceptions of quality, the research reveals that investors continue to view ESG ratings as an important input into investment decision-making. More than half of polled investors said that they use ESG ratings because they provide information that is material to investment performance.”
[COMMENTARY] This result is not surprising considering all the negative publicity about ESG and that investors are realizing that ESG ratings are not stock performance ratings!
ERM research reveals sharp drop in investor confidence in quality of data offered by ESG ratings providers, by ERM, October 8, 2026, UK.
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Shareholder Rights Under Pressure. “Across many markets, competition for listings has led to changes to the frameworks that protect minority shareholders. Some changes reflect legitimate improvements, but others weaken the investor protections that anchor market confidence and integrity. In global markets, changes in some jurisdictions create pressure on others to follow. This trend is concerning and can affect long-term value creation across global portfolios.”
[COMMENTARY] The weakening of shareholder rights is likely to affect those shareholders and groups pushing companies towards better sustainability and ESG practices.
Shareholder Rights Under Pressure, by Carine Smith Ihenacho, Snorre Gjerde, and Deena Elmeged, Norges Bank Investment Management, October 5, 2026, Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, USA.
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Higher ESG Ratings, Lower Financing Costs. “MSCI research covering more than 4,300 issuers from 2015 to 2024 found a significant historical correlation between MSCI ESG Ratings and financing costs in both equity and debt markets. For corporate leaders, the findings add financing costs to the range of factors that may be relevant when assessing sustainability risk management.”
[COMMENTARY] The results found in this study mirror those of previous studies. This is one reason why companies continue to quietly integrate ESG and sustainability practices despite an agenda by some groups to denigrate ESG and sustainability!
Higher ESG Ratings, Lower Financing Costs, by Lauren Wisbeski, Jakub Malich, and Anett Husi, October 1, 2026, MSCI, USA.
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Featured Book
Trust and ESG Strategies. “Trust and ESG Strategies explores how trust shapes the design, implementation, and impact of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives across sectors and regions.”
For more information, visit Trust and ESG Strategies by
© 2026 Ron Robins, Investing for the Soul.
