WASHINGTON, D.C.
November 9, 2010
SRI Assets Up 13 Percent in Current Economic Downturn, While Overall Assets Increased Less Than 1 Percent; Several Factors Driving Current and Expected Future SRI Growth.
Despite the recent economic downturn, sustainable and socially responsible investing (SRI) in the United States is continuing to grow at a faster pace than the total universe of investment assets under professional management, according to the new 2010 edition of the Social Investment Forum Foundation’s Report on Socially Responsible Investing Trends in the United States.
Key report findings include the following:
• The pool of assets engaged in SRI strategies – the use of environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria, shareholder advocacy and community investing — has grown more rapidly than the overall investment universe due to such factors as net inflows into existing SRI products, the development of new SRI products, and the adoption of SRI strategies by managers and institutions not previously involved in the field.
• Since 2005, SRI assets have increased more than 34 percent while the broader universe of professionally managed assets has increased only 3 percent. From the start of 2007 to the end of 2009, a three-year period when broad market indices such as the S&P 500 declined and the broader universe of professionally managed assets increased less than 1 percent, assets involved in sustainable and socially responsible investing increased more than 13 percent (from $2.71 trillion to $3.07 trillion).
• Nearly one out of every eight dollars under professional management in the United States today — 12.2 percent of the $25.2 trillion in total assets under management tracked by Thomson Reuters Nelson — is involved in some strategy of socially responsible and sustainable investing.
This is great SRI info!
I got interested in SRI some forty years ago as I believed that when we invest in a company we share in the responsibility for the activities of the company as well as participate in the outcomes of the company’s activities. Therefore anyone valuing their personal or spiritual growth has to take these things into account when investing.
I also believe that if everyone does invest according to their personal values, then, since so many of core values are alike — and are supportive of higher ideals — that in the long run, only companies employing these higher values will truly prosper.
For anyone interested I have a popular site that covers the latest global news and research on SRI. It’s at http://investingforthesoul.com
Best wishes, Ron Robins