Maybe it’s coincidence, or perhaps it’s a game of keeping up with the Joneses, but the two largest U.S. exchange-traded fund sponsors today launched new products aimed at the environmental, social and governance investing movement.

BlackRock’s iShares unit, which has a sizable roster of ESG-related ETFs, added to that lineup with three products focused on U.S. equities.

Vanguard, for its part, added to its small group of ESG ETFs with the rollout of the Vanguard ESG U.S. Corporate Bond ETF (VCEB). This product tracks the Bloomberg Barclays MSCI U.S. Corporate SRI Select Index, which includes U.S. dollar-denominated, investment-grade, fixed-rate, taxable corporate bonds with maturities of more than one year. The index screens out bonds from companies with substantial revenue derived from adult entertainment, alcohol, gambling, tobacco, controversial military weapons, civilian firearms, nuclear power and genetically modified organisms.

In this case, “substantial revenue” applies to companies that earn more than 5% in revenue, or more than $500 million, in any of the proscribed categories.

In addition, Bloomberg and MSCI exclude bonds from issuers that don’t meet certain diversity criteria or certain standards defined by the index provider’s ESG controversies assessment that measures factors such as environmental impact, labor rights, human rights, community impact, governance and compliance with the United Nations Global Compact principles. 

The VCEB fund charges an expense ratio of 0.12%, and is Vanguard’s first fixed-income ESG ETF. The company’s ESG ETF lineup also includes the Vanguard ESG U.S. Stock ETF (ESGV) and the Vanguard ESG International Stock ETF (VSGX).

Both of those funds launched in September 2018 and have attracted a good chunk of change: ESGV has roughly $1.9 billion in assets and VSGX has about $1.2 billion.

Regarding BlackRock, the company expanded its existing roster of ESG-focused ETFs with the launch of the iShares ESG Screened S&P 500 ETF (XVV), the iShares ESG Screened S&P Mid-Cap ETF (XJH) and the iShares ESG Screened S&P Small-Cap ETF (XJR).

All three products track underlying indexes from S&P Dow Jones Indices, and employ screens that exclude companies with specific levels of involvement in tobacco (both production and retail); controversial weapons; the manufacturers and major retailers of small arms; and fossil-fuel related activity including fossil fuel reserves from thermal coal, other coal, conventional and unconventional oil, natural gas and shale gas.

According to fund literature, the index screens are based on revenue or percentage of revenue thresholds for certain categories, and involve total exclusions for others. 

Furthermore, the index keepers monitor companies for a range of issues such as economic crime and corruption, fraud, illegal commercial practices, human rights issues, labor disputes, workplace safety, catastrophic accidents and environmental disasters. Companies nailed for any of these offenses would be banished from the index for at least a year.

The expense ratios on the three new ETFs are 0.08% for the S&P 500 product and 0.12% for the other two funds.

There are now 21 iShares ESG ETFs with more than $21 billion in assets.