OpRisk consultancy founder Elena Pykhova has become the latest to add her voice to calls for a rethink of ESG that have been a feature of this year. Her view is that each component part of the label needs to be dealt with in its own way.

Writing for the Risk & Compliance website Knowledge Base, she says that “Investors should separate and align their portfolios with either E, S or G factors”. And she thinks compliance and regulation professionals need to break down responsibilities for different aspects.

She sees environmental and climate considerations as the cause of other risks materializing, and therefore something for risk professionals to consider. Social aspects would be the domain of human resources professionals, while governance would be embedded via compliance and ethics policies.

There’s still a role, in her view, for corporate ESG teams in integrating the various activities and their related risks after they have been assessed and dealt with as separate entities.