by Hank Boerner – Chairman, G&A Institute
Flash Report from the Front Lines of Sustainable & Responsible Investing — here’s a number that we will be seeing repeated many times over the coming days and months:  US$6.57 trillion of assets under management are now invested using sustainable, responsible and impact investing strategies.  That is more than $1 in every $6 under professional management in the United States of America.
These assets comprise almost 18% of the total $36.8 trillion U.S. AUM tracked by Cerulli Associates.
From 1995 – the first US SIF survey at year end — to December 2013, the universe has grown 929% —  a compound annual growth rate of 13.1%.
Money managers report using ESG integration strategies across asset classes for AUM of $4.80 trillion — that is triple the amount reported by US SIF at the beginning of 2012 (the last survey).
Asset Owners — public employee pension funds, foundations, educational institutions (endowments), religious institutions — applying ESG criteria grew to $4.04 trillion (up 77% since start of 2012). Note that a subset of asset managers surveyed and answering “why” they offer ESG products, (119 in all) said that 80% of their clients demanded the use of ESG criteria..
The report is from US SIF – The US Forum for Sustainable & Responsible Investment (US SIF), the trade organization for professionals, firms, institutions and organizations, engaged in sustainable, responsible and impact investing.  (Variously you may refer to these activities as SRI, ESG, Triple Bottom Line, ethical, socially & responsibly investing, and other terms.)  Every other year US SIF conducts a comprehensive survey of investment trends / activities by individuals, institutions, investment companies, asset managers, financial institutions, mutual fund advisors, and others, to determine the overall SRI assets.
The 10th biennial report published this week covers sustainable investment and impact investment AUM at the beginning of 2014 by 480 institutional investors, 308 money managers and 880 community investment institutions that apply various environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria in their investment activities.
Special recognitions to the key players in the announcement launch effort this week:  Lisa Woll, CEO of US SIF and her team involved in the survey effort; report authors Meg Vorhees of US SIF and Josh Humpreys of Croatan Institute.  The announcement made was at Bloomberg LP — hosted by Bloomber’s Curtis Ravenel.  Presentations were by US SIF members Paul Hilton (Trillium); Hilary Irby (Morgan Stanley); Amy O’Brien (TIAA-CREF).  also, Michael Garland (New York City Comptroller’s Office).and Ellen Dorsey (Wallace Global Fund).