New “EBF” Framework May Revolutionize the ESG Industry

Overview

The struggle for companies to provide transparent metrics across their supply chain in our move towards sustainability may be addressed by the Ecological Benefits Framework, a comprehensive tool developed by Douglas Gayeton aiming to revolutionize ESG investing by considering six critical elements and potentially becoming a universal language for environmental decision-making and market transparency.

Summary

As we begin to transition to a more sustainable society, companies are struggling to provide transparency and differentiating metrics across their supply chain- this makes it difficult for investors and consumers to gauge the impact of their investments.

Now, this issue may become inconceivable, as a new “shared market architecture” enters into the market. The Ecological Benefits Framework, created by a San Francisco-based manager, focuses on environmentally, and socially responsible portfolios and gives a more comprehensive overview of the true social effect of investments than traditional ESG investing. 

The creator of this framework is Douglas Gayeton. He is a co-founder of the Lexicon (a non-governmental organization that tries to address environmental challenges created by the agrifood industry”. He also is an award-winning artist and filmaker that focuses on the beauty of wildlife.

Picture of Douglas Gayeton

The framework takes into account six elements that the company affects: air, water, biodiversity, healthy soils, equity, and carbon. These six categories build a holistic model that invesetors can use to weigh the social aspect evaluated impacts. This framework aims to be the standardized method for ESG investing as there are many different types of ESG frameworks and many of them are complicated and lack organization. 

The creator of the framework hopes that EBF will build out a measurement, reporting, and verification library that investors will be able to access in their environmental decision making. He hopes that EBF can become a “digital handshake for the planet that empowers a common language across carbon markets and ESG reporting”. He hopes this product may lead the way for a market-based solution for ESG reporting and transparency.  

To discover more about the structure of the framewor, check out this article from CNBC: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/19/how-one-asset-management-firm-adopted-a-new-framework-for-esg.html