Document summary
Sustainable investing, also known as responsible investing, is an investment approach that considers environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in portfolio selection and management. The 2014 review measures sustainable investments in all asset classes, from public equities and fixed income to hedge funds, microfinance and impact investments. This is the second report to collate the results from the market studies by regional sustainable investment forums from Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia, Asia (ex Japan) and Japan after the inaugural 2012 review was published in early 2013.
Since the first global review was published in 2012, the global sustainable investment market has continued to grow both in absolute and relative terms, rising from $13.3 trillion at the outset of 2012 to $21.4 trillion at the start of 2014, and from 21.5 percent to 30.2 percent of the professionally managed assets in the regions covered. Over this two-year period, the fastest growing region has been the United States, followed by Canada and Europe. These three regions are also the largest regions in terms of assets, accounting for 99 percent of global sustainable investing assets.