Sustainable Investing Is Like a Box of Chocolates

Jan Anton van Zanten ()
Additional contact information
Jan Anton van Zanten: Osmosis Investment Management NL

Chapter 2 in Big Money, Better World?, 2026, pp 7-22 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Sustainable investing means different things to different people. Socially responsible, ethical, ESG, green, impact, and transition investing are used interchangeably – creating confusion that allows single-idea thinking to flourish at the expense of rigorous practice. This chapter brings clarity to a crowded landscape by evaluating the ends and means of sustainable investing. Two fundamental goals define the ends. The first is financial: using sustainability insights to manage risk and enhance returns. Boeing’s governance failures, BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster, and Enel’s transformation illustrate what is at stake. The second goes further: aligning capital with social and environmental outcomes as an objective in its own right. These ends are pursued through two means. Asset allocation – or exit – directs capital toward sustainable companies and away from harmful ones. Active ownership – or voice – uses shareholder power to push for change from within. Together, exit and voice form the practical toolkit of any serious sustainable investor. The chapter closes with a working definition that runs throughout the book: sustainable investing involves asset allocation and active ownership that aim to support sustainable development and create long-term value. Simple enough – but as subsequent chapters reveal, the gap between this definition and what most investors actually do is larger and more consequential than the industry typically admits.

Keywords: sustainable investing definition; ESG integration; active ownership; shareholder engagement; asset allocation; socially responsible investing; green bonds (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-032-32442-9_2

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783032324429

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-32442-9_2

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Books from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().