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Decline

03-10-2024 · Insight

Balancing sustainability and returns: What multi-asset investors need to know

Investors and wider society increasingly demand more sustainable investments – but does it come at the cost of returns? Historically, we can show that sustainability has improved multi-asset risk-adjusted returns, which supports the belief that more sustainable companies perform better in the long run, and this feeds through into the returns of mixed equity and corporate bond universes. The question is whether the costs justify the journey.

    Authors

  • Aliki Rouffiac - Portfolio Manager

    Aliki Rouffiac

    Portfolio Manager

  • Jonathan Arthur  - Client Portfolio Manager

    Jonathan Arthur

    Client Portfolio Manager

  • Laurens Swinkels - Head of Solutions Research

    Laurens Swinkels

    Head of Solutions Research

In this article, Robeco’s Sustainable Multi-Asset Solutions team discusses the impact that integrating sustainability actually has on risk-adjusted returns over the past six years to the end of 2023. We use Robeco’s SDG Framework, mapping out the contributions that companies can make to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) as the principle means of ‘defining’ sustainability, and see how this feeds through into returns.

Certainly, some kind of price is paid, as the analysis shows that excluding less sustainable investments from multi-asset portfolios brings greater market deviation against traditional benchmarks. Additionally, the research shows that differing sectors and regions often cause short-term differences in performance due to the various biases that can creep in. But it does prove worthwhile in the medium-term.

And in any event, increasing regulation means investors will have to consider sustainability factors whether they find it convenient or not, making it imperative to understand how to balance sustainability with the returns that are needed by stakeholders over the market cycle.

Read the full article here


Sustainable Diversified Allocation D EUR

Select other related funds

performance ytd (30/04)
-4.06%
Performance 3y (30/04)
1.84%
since inception (30/04)
3.19%
total size of fund (30/04)
130mln
morningstar (30/04)
View the fund
Past performance is no guarantee of future results. The value of the investments may fluctuate. Annualized (for periods longer than one year). Performances are net of fees and based on transaction prices.

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