Socially Responsible Investing in the US and Europe: Same Goals But Different Paths
Abstract
SRI is a booming market in both the US and Europe. Celent predicts that the SRI market in the US will reach $3 trillion by 2011, and the European SRI market grew from €1 trillion in 2005 to €1.6 trillion in 2007.
The market for socially responsible investing (SRI) is becoming more mainstream in both the US and Europe, but the markets are developing in different ways. In the US shareholder advocacy has become a dominant part of modern SRI, while sustainable development has been important in Europe. In the report, , Celent provides an overview of the major trends concerning SRI, emphasizing the main strategies.
"SRI is becoming a major concern for both retail and institutional investors on the two sides of the Atlantic, and thus, the financial services industry could offer adapted solutions that meet these investors' needs," says Perrine Fiorina, analyst in the Securities & Investments group at Celent and author of the report.
SRI includes all initiatives that integrate extrafinancial criteria in the investment decision process and portfolio management. Even though strategies and investors' concerns differ both between continents and among European countries, SRI generally takes three forms: screening, shareholder advocacy, and community investing.
To have a better understanding of SRI, this report defines sustainable development, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and the main internationally agreed-upon principles, codes of conduct, and certification schemes.
Moreover, this report analyses the major sustainability analysis organizations (SAOs), which are designed to evaluate and measure the extrafinancial performances of corporations.
The 30-page report contains nine charts and five tables. A table of contents is available online.
Members of Celent's research services can download the report electronically by clicking on the icon to the left. Non-members should contact info@celent.com for more information.