The recent economic downturn has not hurt sustainable and socially responsible investing (SRI) in the United States. SRI assets are up 13 percent while overall assets increased less than 1 percent, according to the new 2010 edition of the Social Investment Forum Foundation’s Report on Socially Responsible Investing Trends in the United States.    

To be sure, the pool of assets engaged in SRI strategies – the use of environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria, shareholder advocacy and community investing -- has grown more rapidly than the overall investment universe due to such factors as net inflows into existing SRI products, the development of new SRI products, and the adoption of SRI strategies by managers and institutions not previously involved in the field. 

Looking back since SRI gained popularity, say since 2005, SRI assets have increased more than 34 percent while the broader universe of professionally managed assets has increased only 3 percent.  From the start of 2007 to the end of 2009, a three-year period when broad market indices such as the S&P 500 declined and the broader universe of professionally managed assets increased less than 1 percent, assets involved in sustainable and socially responsible investing increased more than 13 percent  (from $2.71 trillion to $3.07 trillion).

Nearly one out of every eight dollars under professional management in the United States today -- 12.2 percent of the $25.2 trillion in total assets under management tracked by Thomson Reuters Nelson -- is involved in some strategy of socially responsible and sustainable investing.

“Socially responsible and sustainable investing emerged from the recent financial crisis doing better than the overall market in terms of holding onto assets and attracting new investments,” according to Lisa Woll, CEO of the Social Investment Forum.   “What is significant about this strong growth is that it encompasses both retail investors, including SRI mutual funds, and institutional investors, who hold the majority of SRI investments.  We have also seen robust expansion of the strategies of shareholder advocacy and community investing.”