Introduction

Jan Anton van Zanten ()
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Jan Anton van Zanten: Osmosis Investment Management NL

Chapter 1 in Big Money, Better World?, 2026, pp 1-6 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract More than 5,000 investors controlling USD 140 trillion have committed to sustainable investing, with one in three dollars now deployed under some form of sustainability integration. Yet the field is deeply divided. Critics on one side dismiss it as ‘woke capitalism’ undermining returns; critics on the other call it a dangerous distraction from the systemic change the planet needs. Single-idea thinking has taken hold, and single ideas make poor guides to a complex world. This chapter introduces the book’s central argument: that sustainable investing today suffers from ‘hedgehog thinking’, rallying around one big idea – portfolio decarbonization, ESG integration, or impact monetization – and treating it as the answer to everything. Drawing on Isaiah Berlin’s essay The Hedgehog and the Fox, it makes the case for a foxier alternative: plural, adaptive, and science-based strategies that embrace the complexity of sustainable development. This chapter maps the landscape of sustainable investing – its actors, asset classes, and sustainability issues – and sets out what the book covers: from defining sustainable investing and scrutinizing whether investors practise what they preach to assessing real-world impact and financial trade-offs. The fox, this chapter argues, is not just a better investor but also a more honest one.

Keywords: sustainable investing; ESG investing; hedgehog and fox; sustainable finance; impact investing; green finance; responsible investing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-32442-9_1

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