ESG and Values Based Exclusion means limiting or screening out certain companies or entire industries based on their general ESG behaviour, or based on exposure to certain types of business deemed unethical (i.e. tobacco, alcohol, controversial weapons, slave labour, pornography, etc…). Sometimes ESG exclusion and integration can go hand in hand when an investment mandate is designed to exclude the worst ESG behaving companies, but not the entire industry. This is often referred to as an ESG Best-in Class approach. Taking this a step further introduces levering your power as an owner to engage those companies that remain in the portfolio to push them to further improve their ESG practices.