In 2016, Morningstar introduced the Sustainability Rating for funds and ETFs and established its sustainability indexes. Jon Hale, a prominent sustainable-investing commentator and former Morningstar head of sustainability research, helped create the rating. Hale recalls: "I couldn't believe how complex and sophisticated the frameworks had gotten. I asked Joe [Mansueto, Morningstar's founder], 'Can we do this?' He said, 'Sure.' And once he said that, then people said, OK, we'll shake loose some resources. When we launched the rating, it focused attention on sustainable investing. Academic papers were written.