It Doesn’t Deliver Meaningful E or S Impact: Almost all ESG fund types invest in securities that trade in secondary markets. As a result, even if planetary welfare were a principal objective of ESG investing, measurement of impact would be unfeasible. To determine if each fund’s investments were making an impact, it is necessary to demonstrate additionality — defined as “that but for this investment, the measured outcome would likely not have occurred, thereby creating impact.” For equities bought in the secondary market, “most economists agree that it is virtually impossible for a socially motivated investor to increase the beneficial outputs of a publicly traded corporation by purchasing its stock,” argue the Hewlett Foundation’s Kelly Born and Stanford Law professor emeritus Paul Brest in a 2013 paper.