Socially responsible investing continues to grow in popularity. According to the Social Investment Forum, total AUM in socially screened portfolios has grown from $529 billion to $1.5 trillion in the past three years.
But, what is a socially screened portfolio?
A socially responsible investment is an investment that seeks to provide financial return while remaining socially conscious and bring about social change. Historically, SRI investments were based upon negative screens and were weeded out based on things like alcohol, firearms, gambling, nuclear power, etc.
As time has passed, there’s been a shift to positive screening and companies are being screened on their corporate behavior and contributions to society and global change.
As we’ve seen, socially responsible investing continues to grow and will likely do so in an environment soon to be driven by millennials and their social focus. Read Wharton’s recent article, Social Investing: Big Business, Big Challenges.