Responsible Investing Is Hot: ESG AUM Hits $21 Trillion

Responsible investing is going mainstream according to HSBC’s inaugural Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investing handbook. According to HSBC, ESG-based investing has grown from close to zero a decade ago, to an estimated 30% of professionally-managed assets globally today. This works out at around $21 trillion of assets under management. What’s more, 40% of the MSCI ACWI (All Country World Index) now reports meaningful ESG metrics to investors on a regular basis — up from just 5% a decade ago. And investing responsibly is not only good for the state of the planet but according to HSBC, companies with significantly improving ESG indicators outperformed…