Sustainability data at a glance: Set your ESG preferences to align with your values

When investing, it can feel good knowing that the company or fund you own shares in matches your personal values. That’s why many people use ESG ratings to make informed investment decisions.

Using those ratings, CMC Invest helps ESG conscious investors one step further. Customers are able to set preferences based on their individual values.

An ESG value for one investor, however, might not be considered sustainable by another. We all have different opinions and principles. Some may be happy to invest in a cosmetics company because it doesn’t practise animal testing. Other investors, however, may avoid the same company because it uses palm oil in its products.

Set which business involvement areas you wish to avoid and at a glance, know if an asset you’re interested in doesn’t meet your values.

Important: This article is for general guidance purposes only and should not be considered investment advice. If you are unsure about the suitability of an investment, please seek out advice. Third-party information is not advice and is not a reliable indicator of future results. When you invest, your capital is at risk.

ESG ratings

This feature is based on the ESG scores and data – provided by Sustainalytics – attached to every asset in the CMC Invest app.

These scores allow you to see how sustainable a company is, or how sustainable the holdings of a fund are. They also show whether companies and fund holdings are aligned to any problematic industries – like weapons manufacturing or predatory lending. You can find more details about these ratings here.

How to set your ESG preferences in the CMC Invest app

To get started setting your ESG preferences, pick any asset and visit its information page. They’ll be a banner prompting you to “Add your ESG preferences” below the “Buy” and “Sell” buttons.

Select the “Add” button on the banner to get started. You can also dismiss the banner if you don’t want to set preferences at that very moment. If you dismiss the banner, it will appear again in the ESG tab on any assets page. You can come here to set your preferences at any time.

If you choose to add your preferences, you’ll be taken to a screen where you can select which business involvement areas you’d like to be alerted about (see below).

Simply use the sliders to decide the business involvement areas that you wish to avoid. Select “Save preferences”.

After saving your preferences, when you view an asset screen, you’ll be immediately shown whether it’s an ESG match for you or not. This is indicated by an ESG indicator located under the asset’s price.

If an asset does not match your ESG preferences, tapping the ESG indicator will reveal which business involvement areas are contrary to your preferences. It is then up to you, if you still want to buy the asset based on the information provided.

You can change your preferences at any time by selecting the ESG tab on an asset’s page.

You can select any of the following business involvement areas to be alerted about:

• Abortive, contraceptives or stem cell

• Adult entertainment

• Alcoholic beverages

• Animal testing

• Arctic oil & gas

• Cannabis

• Controversial weapons

• Fur or specialty leather

• Gambling

• Genetically modified crops

• Military contracting

• Nuclear power

• Oil & gas

• Oil sands extraction

• Palm oil

• Pesticides

• Pork products

• Predatory lending

• Riot control equipment

• Shale energy extraction

• Small guns

• Thermal coal

• Tobacco

• Whale meat