Franklin’s Simpson Says ‘Keep Calm’ Amid Growing ESG Attacks (1)

Anne Simpson, a veteran in sustainable investing, told her peers to “keep calm and carry on” amid the GOP attacks on ESG.

Simpson, global head of sustainability at money manager Franklin Templeton, which oversees $1.4 trillion, offered a rebuttal to the Republican backlash against environmental, social and governance investing, advising investors to focus on economics, fiduciary responsibility and pecuniary factors.

These are topics that aren’t “going to go on a T-shirt,” she said Thursday at a media briefing at the Ceres Global conference in New York. “We aren’t woke, we are awake.”

Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs concurred with ...