Impact Investing Outperforms Market in 2009
Friend, advisor, sustainable investing activist and “our hero,” Jed Emerson (who is more of a Charles Barkley “I am not a role model” kind of hero) just published a piece in Forbes that points to some trends that would startle the traditional investing community.
The little secret of this past year’s capital crisis is that while many mainstream investments incurred significant losses in value, one category remained steady–with some investors significantly outperforming the mainstream market. It’s called impact investing. Impact investing covers that category of investment, which is viewed as “sustainable,” generating financial returns by integrating consideration of social and environmental factors into the investment strategy.
Emerson raises some little-known facts, including:
- the impact investing sector is now a $2.71 trillion industry. (where do we go to get that money, again???)
- micro finance provide a 6% return to investors, while traditional instruments were DOWN 3-5 times that much.
Alongside other recent reports in mainstream financial media, Jed’s piece in Forbes makes us think people are paying more and more attention to this sector.
