Responsible Investment Trends Report

January 6, 2021

With the headline “Canadian ESG Assets Surge to $3.2 Trillion” it’s no surprise responsible investments have come of age in 2020. The Responsible Investment Association released their 2020 Canadian Responsible Investment Trends Report on Nov 26^th 2020, and according to the report, assets allocated to responsible investments “…grew from $2.1 trillion at the end of 2017 to $3.2 trillion as at December 31st, 2019”. That’s a 48% increase!

You’re a trend setter! Investments that include environment, social and governance (ESG) are common place in our practice but, it’s of interest to see where the direction and trends of responsible investment. If you would like to take our responsible investment questionnaire to see where your values stand, or you want to learn about new in ESG products that would fit your investing risks and objectives give us a call.

Below are the key highlights from the report. If you want to read the full report on the RI Canada website, click here.

Key Highlights

$3.2 trillion in RI assets under management (AUM).
48% growth in RI AUM over a two-year period.
RI represents 61.8% of Canada’s investment industry, up from 50.6% two years ago.
Retail RI mutual fund assets increased from $11.1 billion to $15.1 billion, up 36% over two years. RI ETF assets more than doubled from $240.6 million to $654.9 million during the same period.
The two most prominent RI strategies by AUM are: (1) ESG integration and (2) shareholder engagement.
The ESG frameworks most often used by survey respondents in their investment analysis are: (1) Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD); (2) United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); and (3) Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB).
Survey respondents reported the top four reasons for considering ESG factors are: (1) minimizing risk over time, (2) improving returns over time, (3) fulfilling fiduciary duty, and (4) fulfilling mission, purpose or values.
97% of respondents expect moderate to high levels of growth in RI over the next two years.