Environmental, social, and governance (ESG), socially responsible investing (SRI), and impact investing are sometimes used interchangeably. All three do involve the strategy of considering ethical values alongside financial values when evaluating investments. The issues that concern them overlap too.  But there are also some key differences.  ESG standards help socially conscious investors gauge a company's commitment to ethical business practices. While no single ESG rating system is used industry-wide, popular ESG data-providers include MSCI, Morningstar, Bloomberg, Sustainalytics, and more. With SRI, investors purposefully avoid companies with products or business principles that don't align with their values. For example, SRI investors may choose to eliminate all companies that produce tobacco products or use child labor from their portfolios. The biggest difference between ESG and SRI is that ESG tends to be inclusive and SRI exclusive. An ESG-conscious investor may still invest in companies that aren't ranked as highly as others, especially if they've expressed a commitment to improvement. But, with SRI, negative investments are typically screened out completely based on the investor's filtering criteria. Impact investing is sometimes thought of as a subset of SRI. It can be even more exclusive in that the investments chosen are often companies or non-profits that are fully committed to specific causes. So while SRI investors may invest in any company that doesn't violate their values, an impact investor may look for companies that are fighting for values such as eradicating hunger, poverty, or other worthy pursuits. Admittedly, it can seem a bit hair-splitting. One key point, though, is that impact investing, as the name implies, targets investments, initiatives, and companies that show measurable results — not just good intentions.