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Responsible Investing: At a Tipping Point?

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We think so, and yet another recent survey supports the idea.

A survey of Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) Association members showed the majority believe responsible investing is only becoming more important with time, driven by industry standards, pressure from institutional investors, and positive investment returns.

Addressing the survey results, CAIA’s CEO, William J. Kelly, said, “Responsible investing seems to be at a tipping point right now. It is garnering increased interest and momentum, which will likely accelerate in the years to come.”

The survey also identified some challenges still faced in responsible investing; in particular, most respondents felt “better-defined standards would help in its development.” Additionally, 69% felt the primary difficulty in implementing responsible investment policies was the absence of standardized, comparable data. And 44% believed it was difficult to find suitable investments.

These are challenges we’ve long recognized here at OWL ESG. Our aim is to help ESG and responsible investing evolve more quickly, meanwhile helping investors make sense of the jumbled landscape so they can experience the benefits of responsible investing even as the field continues to make strides.

Rigorous testing of available ESG resources led to the development of our own OWL ESG scores, which solves for the major challenges above by normalizing standards, data, and metrics. Further testing of these scores, using simulated backtests on various standard investment strategies, has revealed how they might aid in the construction of a portfolio.

If you haven’t seen our Case Studies series, see our Insights page to check them out. While you’re there, browse our growing library of helpful articles which shed more light on ESG, responsible investing, and more.

We hope the 74% of survey respondents who said greater responsible investing education is necessary will find this helpful.