This paper informs asset owners about the current state of sustainable investing for US institutional investors. Drawing on the experiences of over 100 asset owners and investment professional as well as evidence from WRI’s own endowment the paper constructs a detailed outline of sustainable investing. It highlights the underlying motives and drivers, governance structures, relevant data and standards, investment vehicles, and key barriers that shape opportunities for implementation.

This report is intended to help investors understand how climate change can influence their investment performance in both the short and long term. The research uses scenarios from the Cambridge Econometrics transition-risk climate model, to consider three scenarios; 2⁰C, 3⁰C and 4⁰C temperature increases, with evolved pathways and magnitude.

This white paper highlights whether integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria into the investment process has had a positive effect on corporate financial performance (CFP), whether the effect was stable over time, how a link between ESG and CFP differs across regions and asset classes and whether any specific subcategory of E, S or G had a dominant influence on CFP.

This research focuses on providing a framework for institutional investors to improve long-term outcomes for their portfolios, their investee companies and for their stakeholders. This framework is comprised of five core action areas: investment beliefs, risk appetite statement, benchmarking process, evaluations and incentives, and investment mandates.

This report is designed to help asset owners and asset managers overcome their modern-day challenges as we stand on the cusp of a period of significant transformation in world economies, politics and capital markets. It explores practical solutions and processes to enable investors to become sustainable investors.