2024 Institutional Investor Survey On Sustainability

The survey, fielded by researchers at Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Hoover Institution Working Group on Corporate Governance, and the Rock Center for Corporate Governance in collaboration with the MSCI Sustainability Institute, shows that the lion’s share of global investors either consider environmental, social, and governance factors as central to their decisions or as a factor in shaping their strategies.

It shows that regional differences notwithstanding, risk-minded investors are paying attention to climate-related financial risk, the opportunity that comes with the shift to a clean-energy economy, and the importance of sound governance. They’re also examining such emerging risks as the security and privacy of data.

ESG integration is mainstream but is predominantly about governance

More than three-quarters of investors globally consider ESG (among other factors) in their decision-making. Institutional investors rank governance quality as the most important ESG factor, with 68% of investors saying governance ranks highest in an investment decision. By comparison, only 23% say environmental factors are most important to an investment decision, and 2% cite social factors. Virtually no investors surveyed disregard ESG completely.

Read the full report below.