What's Really Inside Your 'Sustainable' Fund?
NVIDIA's total greenhouse gas emissions rose 87% in a single fiscal year. MSCI rates the company BBB on ESG -- "average," not flagged, not excluded. It appears as a top-five holding in most sustainable ETFs sold to retail investors.
This is the pattern: companies with documented billions in fines, rising emissions, and military contracts sit at the centre of funds marketed as sustainable. The label says one thing. The court record says another.
At Mashinii, we score over 6,000 public companies across 11 ethical dimensions using court filings, regulatory penalties, investigative reports, and NGO findings. We ran the top holdings of major sustainable ETFs through this system and compared each company's independent score to the ESG rating that keeps it in these funds.
For a deeper look at how rating methodologies produce these outcomes, see our analysis of ESG ratings versus independent data. We also examined 10 popular ESG ETFs fund by fund.
What Independent Data Shows About Sustainable Fund Holdings
We pulled Mashinii integrity scores for eight companies that appear as core holdings across ESG and sustainable fund portfolios. For each, we include the ESG rating that qualifies them for "sustainable" inclusion alongside what independently documented evidence shows.
| Company | No War, No Weapons | Safe & Smart Tech | Honest & Fair Business | Planet-Friendly Business | Fair Pay & Worker Respect | Fair Trade & Ethical Sourcing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alphabet (Google) | -80 | -70 | -30 | -30 | -40 | 0 |
| NVIDIA | -70 | -50 | +20 | -30 | +20 | 0 |
| Meta | -50 | -70 | -60 | -10 | -30 | -50 |
| Microsoft | -50 | -40 | -20 | -30 | +30 | 0 |
| Amazon | -40 | -50 | -50 | -30 | -50 | -30 |
| Apple | -30 | +10 | -20 | -40 | 0 | +20 |
| JPMorgan Chase | 0 | -30 | -40 | -20 | 0 | 0 |
| ExxonMobil | 0 | -50 | 0 | -50 | -10 | 0 |
Every company scores negative on at least two dimensions. Most score negative on four or more. These are the backbone of sustainable investing.
Inside the Top 8 Holdings of 'Sustainable' Funds
Alphabet: ESG Label vs. Independent Record
Label: MSCI ESG Rating: BBB ("Average"). Included in iShares ESG Aware, Vanguard ESG, SPDR S&P 500 ESG. Independent score: -80 on No War, No Weapons.
Alphabet increased its total greenhouse gas emissions by 16% between 2023 and 2024, reaching 23.4 million tCO2e -- while remaining a core holding in funds marketed to environmentally conscious investors. The company also holds a $1.2 billion Project Nimbus contract with the Israeli military and a share of the Pentagon's $9 billion Joint Warfighting Cloud contract. In February 2026, Google revised its AI principles, removing its commitment not to pursue AI for weapons or surveillance.
On data privacy, Alphabet settled a lawsuit for illegally tracking over 136 million U.S. users via Chrome's Incognito mode, requiring the purging of billions of files of personal data.
View Alphabet's full score breakdown
Meta: ESG Label vs. Independent Record
Label: MSCI ESG Rating: AA ("Leader" tier). Included in all major sustainable ETFs. Independent score: -70 on Safe & Smart Tech, -60 on Honest & Fair Business.
Meta approved its Llama AI models for use by U.S. defence agencies and contractors, stating it "will not have a say in how US agencies or its partners use the Llama technology." The company partnered with Anduril Industries for military augmented reality devices. Separately, thirty-three U.S. states allege Meta's platforms are addictive and harmful to youth mental health -- a claim supported by internal 2020 research the company allegedly suppressed.
An AA ESG rating and billions in documented regulatory penalties coexist in the same portfolio line item.
View Meta's full score breakdown
Amazon: ESG Label vs. Independent Record
Label: MSCI ESG Rating: A ("Above Average"). Included in ESGU, ESGV, EFIV. Independent score: -50 on Fair Pay & Worker Respect, -50 on Honest & Fair Business.
Amazon reported total carbon emissions of 68.25 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent in 2024, with Scope 1 emissions rising 162% since 2019. France's CNIL fined Amazon EUR 32 million for intrusive employee monitoring via handheld scanners. Three substantiated forced labour findings since 2022 include connections to Chinese suppliers involved in Uyghur forced labour in Xinjiang.
View Amazon's full score breakdown
Microsoft: ESG Label vs. Independent Record
Label: MSCI ESG Rating: AAA ("Leader" -- highest possible). Independent score: -50 on No War, No Weapons.
Microsoft disbanded its AI ethics and society team in March 2023. An estimated 11.9% of annual revenue comes from defence contracts, including a $22 billion HoloLens augmented reality contract with the U.S. Army. OpenAI, a major Microsoft investment, revised its terms to allow "national security use cases." Its subsidiary LinkedIn faces a January 2025 lawsuit for allegedly disclosing private messages to third parties to train AI models.
On the positive side, Microsoft achieves near-perfect pay equity globally. Women earn $1.0 for every $1.0 earned by men in comparable roles.
View Microsoft's full score breakdown
NVIDIA: ESG Label vs. Independent Record
Label: MSCI ESG Rating: BBB ("Average"). Independent score: -70 on No War, No Weapons.
NVIDIA reported total Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas emissions of 7.15 million metric tons in fiscal year 2025 -- an 87% increase from the previous year. Despite that trajectory, the company remains a top holding in funds marketed as sustainable. Its Jetson microcomputers were found in Russian military drones. Chinese military bodies acquired restricted A100 and H100 chips despite U.S. export bans.
On worker treatment, median employee compensation was $301,233, and voluntary turnover was 2.5%.
View NVIDIA's full score breakdown
ExxonMobil: ESG Label vs. Independent Record
Label: ESG ratings vary widely by provider -- some rate it "Average," others "Laggard." Appears in some "transition" funds. Independent score: -50 on Planet-Friendly Business.
ExxonMobil violated the Clean Air Act over 16,000 times at its Baytown, Texas facility between 2005 and 2013, releasing over 10 million pounds of carcinogenic pollutants. A Pennsylvania jury ordered the company to pay $725.5 million to a mechanic who developed leukaemia from benzene exposure. Allegations emerged in 2025 that the company hired a private investigator to hack over 500 email accounts belonging to climate activists.
View ExxonMobil's full score breakdown
How Companies With Billions in Fines Get 'Sustainable' Labels
ESG ratings reward process, not outcomes. A company that publishes a detailed sustainability report scores well on governance metrics, even if regulators have documented ongoing violations. A company that pledges carbon neutrality gets credit for ambition, even while its absolute emissions rise.
The mechanism is structural:
- Input selection: ESG ratings draw on corporate disclosures, sustainability reports, and self-completed questionnaires. Companies with large sustainability teams produce polished reports. The quality of the report, not the quality of the conduct, drives the rating.
- Exclusion thresholds are narrow: Most sustainable funds exclude tobacco, thermal coal, and dedicated weapons manufacturers. That filter removes Lockheed Martin and Philip Morris but includes technology companies whose AI, cloud, and hardware platforms increasingly serve the same defence applications.
- Scale equals inclusion: The largest companies by market capitalisation dominate both regular and "sustainable" index variants. They are included because they are large, not because independent evidence supports the label.
The result: a fund can carry the word "sustainable" while its top holdings include companies with documented billions in penalties, rising emissions, military contracts, and forced labour findings.
Scoring methodology
Mashinii scores companies across 11 ethical dimensions using independently sourced evidence -- court records, regulatory actions, investigative reports, and NGO findings. Every score is backed by cited sources. We do not use corporate self-assessments.
Learn more about our methodology
Check what your fund actually holds
If you hold a sustainable ETF, a significant share of your money is likely in companies that score negative on multiple integrity dimensions. The gap between the fund's marketing and its composition is worth examining.
Advisors navigating the FCA's Anti-Greenwashing Rule can reference Mashinii's independently sourced data for compliance verification. Explore the advisor solution.
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Mashinii provides integrity data for informational purposes only. Nothing on this page constitutes financial, legal, or investment advice.