A new survey from sustainability think tank Eurosif has revealed 56% of corporate pension funds have a socially responsible investing (SRI) policy in place.

Of respondents to the 2011 Corporate Pension Funds Study who did not have an SRI policy in place, around a quarter planned to have a policy in the coming year.

Meanwhile, 60% of respondents believe environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors affected pension funds’ long-term performance, and 66% felt having an SRI policy was part of their fiduciary duty.

Eurosif’s executive director François Passant said the study showed, for the first time on this scale, that the inclusion of ESG factors in the investment philosophies of European pension funds is becoming mainstream overall.

“Certainly, there is still a long way to go but the study clearly shows that pension funds take their fiduciary duty seriously. The debate thus moves from whether or not a pension fund should have an SRI policy to how to design the most appropriate SRI policy.”

The study also revealed that the most meaningful inputs to funds’ SRI policies were the pension fund boards and the funding company corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies. At 85%, a large majority of the study respondents felt the CSR/sustainability policy of the funding company was a significant input for the formulation of the SRI policies.

To access the report, click here

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