More than 800 global institutional investors across 45 countries have now committed to the United Nations-back Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), an increase of 268 since July 2009, according to the PRI Initiative.
This shows an increased recognition from institutional investors that environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors are crucial for developing sustainable financial markets, the PRI Initiative stated.
A PRI assessment survey was completed by more than half of the signatories this year and revealed that signatories conducted more than 4,000 engagements with companies to encourage improvements in corporate ESG performance.
Around 90 per cent of signatories collaborated with other investors on ESG issues, and 95 per cent of asset owners and 87 per cent of managers had overall investment policies that addressed ESG issues.
The survey was the first time many investors had systematically collected data on responsible investments from within their organisations and from outsourced managers and service providers, said PRI Initiative executive director James Gifford.
“The real highlight is that 40 per cent of respondents opted to publish their responses in full online. This represents a real and significant increase in investor transparency on responsible investment activities,” he said.
“Every large, world class listed company is now monitoring and reporting on its ESG performance, and so too are an increasing number of investors.”
