Globally, sustainable investment assets have increased in value by 25 percent since 2014.
According to the Global Sustainable Investment Alliance's Global Sustainable Investment Review 2016, "there are now $22.89 trillion of assets being professionally managed under responsible investment strategies."
The sustainable investment market has grown fastest in Japan during this two-year span, with Australia/New Zealand and Canada also showing particularly rapid growth.
Europe experienced 12 percent growth from 2014-16 and has a total globally sustainable asset base of $12.04 trillion. In the U.S., Impact Economy investing is up 33 percent in the time span to $8.72 trillion. Canada experienced a 49 percent increase to $1.09 billion.
The report defines sustainable investing as "an investment approach that considers environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in portfolio selection and management.... Sustainable investment encompasses the following activities and strategies:
- Negative/exclusionary screening
- Positive/best-in-class screening
- Norms-based screening
- Integration of ESG factors
- Sustainability themed investing
- Impact/community investing and
- Corporate engagement and shareholder action."
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