Global assets professionally managed under sustainable and responsible investment strategies soared to $23 trillion in 2016, a 25% increase from 2014, the Global Sustainable Investment Alliance reported this week in its biennial review.
Responsible investment now accounts for 26% of all professionally managed assets globally, according to the review.
Several GSIA members reported that consideration of fiduciary duty was an important driver for sustainable investing, along with client demand, the organization said in a statement.
Other research has found that U.S. investors demand consideration of environmental, social and governance factors.
Moreover, advisors who fail to understand the growing popularity of investing according to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) principles risk falling behind their competition.
Following are the 2016 assets in activities and strategies that comprise sustainable investment, according to the GSIA:
- Negative/exclusionary screening: $15 trillion, up from $12 trillion in 2014
- Integration of ESG factors: $10.4 trillion, up from $7.5 trillion
- Corporate engagement and shareholder action: $8.4 trillion, up from $5.9 trillion
- Norms-based screening: $6.2 trillion, up from $4.4 trillion
- Positive/best-in-class screening: $1 trillion, up from $890 billion
- Sustainability-themed investing: $331 billion, up from $138 billion
- Impact/community investing: $248 billion, up from $1.1 billion
The report said negative screening was the largest strategy in Europe, while ESG integration led in the U.S., Canada, Australia/New Zealand and Asia ex Japan.
Japan's primary sustainable investment strategy was corporate engagement and shareholder action. The fastest growing strategy, although also the smallest in absolute dollar terms, was impact/community investing.
Sustainable investing grew in both absolute and relative terms since the beginning of 2014 in nearly every market represented in the report, according to the GSIA.
Europe accounted for 53% of global SRI assets, and the U.S. for 38%. The fastest growing region was Japan, followed by Australia/New Zealand.
