The drive towards more responsible investing is stronger in the UK and continental Europe than in the US, according to a survey from professional services firm Aon.
The survey of 223 institutional investors around the world found that 47% of European investors have a responsible investing policy in place compared to just 30% of US investors.
“Global perspectives on responsible investing,” a report produced on the back of the survey, also found that investors in Europe are the most likely to have dedicated responsible investment staff (28%) while UK investors are most likely to withdraw from a manager with no responsible investing policy in place (11%).
The most common type of responsible investing implementation was environmental, social and governance integration into investment strategies (47%). Negative screening, also known as socially responsible investing (SRI), was a distant second at 24%.
John Belgrove, senior partner at Aon, said: “It was clear from the data that European investors are behind much of the drive towards responsible investment.
“We believe this is due in large part to strong governmental action and regulatory changes that push investors towards a more sustainable investment approach.”
The survey also found that 68% of institutional investors globally consider responsible investing as important to some degree to their organisation.
Of these, 40% have already developed a responsible investment policy for use in making investment decisions, and another 14% are in the process of developing a policy.
Of the companies that have implemented at least one responsible investing initiative, 39% said that they had done so in the belief that the incorporation of ESG data resulted in better investment decisions.
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