How Has Investing in DEI and ESG Changed Under Trump?

WSJ's Take On the Week

With companies like Target blaming DEI backlash for lower sales while competitors like Costco are seeing boosts in foot traffic, how can a company’s DEI commitments affect investors with a socially conscious approach to investing?

In this special bonus episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, guest host Miriam Gottfried is joined by Rachel Robasciotti, founder and Co-CEO of investment firm Adasina Social Capital. Adasina runs an exchange-traded fund dedicated to it called “social justice investing” that holds Nvidia, Visa, Mastercard and Eli Lily, among many other companies. Robasciotti says the companies in the fund must check the box on more than 80 metrics the firm has assembled related to racial, gender, economic and climate justice.

Robasciotti shares her views on the financial advantages of social conscious investing and how Adasina measures a company’s social impact to provide investors’ portfolios with more transparency. Plus, she shares the importance of DEI principles in light of the Trump administration's policy changes to DEI.

This is WSJ’s Take On the Week where co-hosts Gunjan Banerji, lead writer for Live Markets, and Telis Demos, Heard on the Street’s banking and money columnist, cut through the noise and dive into markets, the economy and finance—the big trades, key players and business news ahead.

Have an idea for a future guest or episode? How can we better help you take on the week? We’d love to hear from you. Email the show at [email protected].

To watch the video version of this episode, visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com.

Further Reading

Dive Deeper Into ESG Investing

Don’t Call It ESG, Call It Resilience

Boycotting Target: A WSJ Podcast Series

Target’s Sales Dented by DEI Boycott

For more coverage of the markets and your investments, head to WSJ.com, WSJ’s Heard on The Street Column, and WSJ’s Live Markets blog.

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