71% Of Investors Are Interested In Sustainable Investing

Individual investors are looking for ways to make investing more sustainable, according to a new survey conducted by the Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing, but many don’t see sustainable investing as cooperative with financial gains.

These were the key findings from the Sustainable Signals: The Individual Investor Perspective report, published by the Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing this week, which interviewed approximately 800 individual investors on the idea of “sustainable investing.”

Specifically, 71% of individual investors — defined as those “that actively trade stocks, mutual funds, bonds” — were interested in sustainable investing, but that 54% believe choosing between sustainable investments and making financial gains is a trade-off.

Millennial Investors

“Millennial investors are on the leading edge of adoption,” write the authors of the report, noting that, “compared to the overall individual investor population, Millennial investors are nearly 2x more likely to invest in companies or funds that target specific social or environmental outcomes.”

Female Investors

Furthermore, “females are substantially more likely than males to factor sustainability into their investment decisions,” being “2x as likely … to consider both rate of return and positive impact when making an investment.”

Finally, 65% of individual investors believe that sustainable investing will become more prevalent in the next five years.

“Individual investors are sending signals that display clear interest in integrating sustainability into their personal investment portfolios,” the authors conclude. “Driven by rising demand and deeper engagement from Millennial and female investors, active individual investors expect sustainable investing to accelerate in the near future.”