This year’s Responsible Investment Benchmark Report shows that the responsible investment market in Aotearoa New Zealand continues to grow. Responsible Investment Assets Under Management (Responsible Investment AUM) reached a record $142 billion in 2020, representing 43% of total professionally managed investments, up from $111 billion in 2019.

In 2020, responsible investments grew faster than the total market – Responsible Investment AUM grew by 28%, while Total Funds Under Management grew by 11%.

In 2020, a larger number of New Zealand investment managers engaged in responsible investment are practising a leading approach. Both the number (20 in 2020 compared to only 14 in 2019) and proportion of Responsible Investment Leaders (43% in 2020 compared with only 24% in 2019) have increased, driven by the improvement in allocation of capital by some investment managers to targeting and achieving sustainability outcomes, pushing them to Leader status.