While ESG investing has grown significantly in recent years, several phenomena raise questions about our ability to define the field of ESG investing. Difficulty to estimate its market size, derive consistent ratings of ESG performance, frequent accusations of ‘cheap talk’ by managers, and recent regulatory actions in both EU and US are signs of the challenge to define the field. In this session, George Serafeim - the Charles M. Williams Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and academic partner at State Street Associates presented a conceptual framework clarifying the meaning of ESG investing by defining its objective, which sets a clear expectation about the outcomes from its application and its key characteristics. As a result, the framework enables investors to have a set of common premises as a basis for discussion, ask the right questions, and limit areas of judgement and unwanted discretion. For asset owners, the framework provides a guide for the evaluation and selection of asset managers and what outcomes to expect from the different approaches to ESG investing. For asset managers, the framework provides clarity about the actions needed to establish credibility in the market and how to create a shared understanding inside the organization about what the organization is trying to achieve.