Largest investors most likely to consider ESG factors, finds study
Eighty percent of investors have considered sustainability in making at least one investment-related decision in the past 12 months, including how to vote on an AGM resolution or whether to engage a company on a particular topic, according to a study by PwC.
The study also showed that the largest investors – those with assets under management of more than $100 bn – were most likely to take sustainability into account when making investment-related decisions.
‘Our research sought to gain insight from investors about how they are incorporating issues of climate change, resource scarcity, extreme weather events and evolving corporate responsibility expectations into their investment decisions and strategies,’ Kayla Gillan, leader of PwC’s Investor Resource Institute, says in a press release. ‘We found significant evidence that an effect is occurring today – and that it is likely to increase in coming years.’
Investors expect sustainability to become more important to their decisions in the future, with 87 percent saying they expect to make decisions based on climate change and resource scarcity in the coming three years. About 84 percent of those surveyed say they expect that social responsibility and good citizenship will factor into decisions made in that period.
Eighty-nine percent of investors who say sustainability will factor into their decisions say they will request more information about issues of concern from companies in their portfolio, while 79 percent say they will seek a meeting with a company manager, 68 percent say they will try to arrange a meeting with a director and 50 percent say they would sponsor a related shareholder proposal.
Of the investors who take sustainability into account, 73 percent cite risk mitigation as a primary driver, according to the study. Some 55 percent say their main goal is to avoid companies with unethical conduct while 52 percent say they are seeking to enhance performance.
