The Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA) has released its latest Responsible Investment Benchmark Report Aotearoa New Zealand 2024!
This year’s report offers an insightful look into the growth and evolution of responsible investment in New Zealand throughout 2023. Key highlights include:
Impact investing continues to surge, with AUM for all seven responsible investment approaches climbing from $11 billion in 2022 to $15 billion in 2023. Investors are increasingly targeting areas like climate change and energy. However, social themes such as affordable quality housing, racial equity, and financial inclusion were other areas allocated funds, under an impact investing approach. This diverse allocation indicates the sector’s priorities on environmental and social challenges.
A growing commitment to transparency, with 51% of investment managers now providing comprehensive stewardship reports, up from 40% the previous year.
More asset managers are identifying part of their portfolio as impact-related, being more intentional applying an impact lens.
While the sector is growing, challenges remain. Concerns about greenwashing rose to 61%, highlighting the need for robust standards and trust-building initiatives.
Impact funds experienced remarkable growth in 2023, with assets under management rising from $1.04 billion to $5.28 billion across 10 funds. This highlights a growing shift towards investments that are purposeful and focused on achieving measurable positive change.
These funds delivered tangible results across various sectors. Key outcomes included saving 1.4 billion cubic metres of water, adding 8,904 MW of renewable energy capacity, and mitigating 669 million tonnes of carbon emissions. Impact investors also helped create 17,763 social housing homes and supported 13 million student and early learning placements.
Beyond these figures, many projects prioritised biodiversity and sustainable land use, including planting native trees, restoring wetlands, and improving soil health. Together, these efforts demonstrate the potential of impact investing to address pressing social and environmental challenges while delivering meaningful benefits to communities.
Dive into the full report to explore how the responsible investment landscape is shaping up, the challenges it faces, and the opportunities ahead:
A big thank you to the RIAA team for their ongoing commitment to providing these crucial insights that help us understand the evolving responsible investment space.
Comments