Strong sustainability performance is a reliable benchmark of a company’s financial viability, according to an in-depth literature survey published in September by asset manager Arabesque and the University of Oxford.
“Eighty percent of the studies evaluated demonstrated that systematic sustainability management exercises a positive influence on share prices,” CSRwire reports. “So potential investors would be well advised to take environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria into consideration when making investment decisions.”
The evaluation of more than 200 previous studies found that sustainable businesses’ superior market performance “is not just wishful thinking on the part of eco-activists or social interest groups,” Schmid writes. And “the British metastudy has good news for companies, too: 90% of the studies prove that sustainably managed companies can raise capital at significantly lower cost.”
