ESG stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance. Established to help define the environmental, social, and corporate accountability a company demonstrates and can document, the term ESG is often used to help prospective investors and current stockholders assess how a company aligns with the investor’s own principles of what is socially and environmentally ethical and acceptable. This report offers a timeline of how this direction has emerged and why it may presently represent one of the strongest drivers of U.S. economic direction both now and for the foreseeable future.