Investors and other stakeholders have become more focused on understanding how companies address a variety of ESG factors. Many of those investors and shareholders look to ESG rating systems, or disclosure frameworks that have been developed by third party groups to allow comparisons between companies on ESG factors as they evaluate investment decisions as well as to company disclosures.
Although we participate in many of these ratings systems, or disclosure frameworks, and generally score relatively well in those in which we do participate, we do not participate in, and would not necessarily score well in, all of the available ratings systems. Further, the criteria used in these ratings systems change frequently, and we cannot guaranty that we will be able to score well as criteria change. We supplement our participation in ratings systems with corporate disclosures of our ESG activities but many investors and stakeholders may look for specific disclosures that we do not provide. Failure to participate in certain of the third party ratings systems, failure to score well in those ratings systems or failure to provide certain ESG disclosures could result in reputational harm when investors or others compare us against similar companies in our industry and could cause certain investors to be unwilling to invest in our stock which could adversely impact our ability to raise capital.
For more information about the Trust's Corporate Responsibility initiatives, see Item 7. "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Corporate Responsibility."