The responsible investment market in Aotearoa New Zealand reached another milestone in 2022, surpassing laggard funds for the first time. By the end of 2022, over 52% of New Zealand’s total managed fund market was invested responsibly. The 2.5% growth in managed assets was particularly impressive, considering the overall market decreased by 3.4%.

Several key shifts in how asset managers apply responsible investment approaches reflect the sector's ongoing maturation and the embedding of responsible principles. For the first time in New Zealand, corporate engagement and shareholder action became the most widely used responsible investment approach, narrowly ahead of negative screening and ESG integration.

Despite declines in each of these approaches in 2022, they still covered over 90% of the total responsible investment market, representing over $150 billion in AUM. The largest shift occurred in norms-based screening, which grew eightfold to reach $125 billion in AUM, up from $16 billion in 2021.