The New South Wales Department of Trade and Investment has co-launched the Responsible Investment Association Australasia’s (RIAA) 2011 Benchmark Report.

 

The report finds that the broad responsible investment market made up 16 per cent of Australia's $936 billion mainstream managed investment portfolio market as of June 2011, up from 8 per cent in 2010.

 

The also found the average responsible investment fund delivered higher returns than the average mainstream fund in every one of twelve categories covered by the report.

 

Responsible investment takes into account environmental, social, governance or ethical considerations as well as financial criteria, and is an important growth segment within our finance industry.

 

The ley findings of the report are:

  • Responsible investment funds have outperformed their benchmarks in every one of the 12 categories covered in this report – over one, three, five and seven years and across Australian shares, international shares and balanced funds.
  • There were four environmental shareholder resolutions raised during the year, in contrast to just one in the previous decade.
  • 22% of all investment strategies in Australia rated by Mercer have achieved “above average” competency in responsible investment practices.
  • Australian property funds have topped the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark for a second time running. The report states, “Australian property companies are the clear environmental leaders of the globe.”
  • Highlights from the clean technology sector include the launch in 2013 of the largest wind farm in the southern hemisphere.
  • Community finance assets increased 19% from last year’s figure.


The full report can be found here