Intelligent CXO Issue 10 | Page 42

FEATURE from food to transportation , from healthcare to education – the universe for sustainable investors is extensive .
Sustainable investing is smart investing
The momentum behind sustainable investing has been slowly gathering over the last couple of years . In fact , 2022 may well be the year that sustainable investing comes of age . With the world still reeling from COVID-19 , and the climate crisis becoming increasingly apparent , people are thinking about the impact of their investment decisions – on society , on the environment and on the communities in which we live . But sustainable investing is no longer seen as a nice-to-have . Sustainable investing is now seen as smart investing – to build the kind of future that we want for people and our planet .
Historically , one of the challenges we faced was the lack of data to demonstrate and support the argument that investing sustainably does not result in lower financial returns . However , the good news is that this has changed – now we have more and more concrete evidence on how sustainable funds outperform the wider market , countering claims that sustainable investment comes at the expense of performance . The same can be said for companies that understand the role that sustainability plays in their business models , and increasingly leverage this to gain competitive advantage .
It ’ s a growing market
As this evidence has grown so too has momentum – with more investors claiming sustainable investing is the future and fund companies launching sustainable funds at a record pace . A pivotal moment happened in early 2020 , when investment heavyweight Larry Fink famously stated that Blackrock would put sustainability at the centre of its investment strategy .
Most big investors now believe sustainable investing is good risk management , leveraging
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