Tesla also recently criticized ESG metrics as “fundamentally flawed” in an annual report, and in an April tweet Musk said “corporate ESG is the devil incarnate.”
Dorn wrote that an analysis seeking to identify risks to the company stemming from any controversial incidents identified “two separate events centered around claims of racial discrimination and poor working conditions at Tesla’s Fremont factory, as well as its handling of the NHTSA investigation after multiple deaths and injuries were linked to its autopilot.”
Both had a negative impact on Tesla’s score, she said.
The S&P 500 ESG Index is tracked by at least 16 exchange-traded funds, according to the S&P Dow Jones website. Berkshire Hathaway, Johnson & Johnson and Meta Platforms Inc. are among other large companies that also don’t make the list.
Kristin Hull, founder of Nia Impact Capital, a sustainability fund in Oakland, Calif., that has been pressing Tesla to address worker issues, said she was relieved that there was “finally accountability.”
“This move signals to other companies that ESG standards, and improving them, matters,” she said. “And that there will be material, financial implications.”