The Impact of Sustainable Investing

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

Chapter 6 in Big Money, Better World?, 2026, pp 83-97 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Can sustainable investing help solve the world’s most pressing challenges – or is it, as BlackRock’s former chief of sustainable investing once argued, a dangerous placebo that distracts from real solutions? This chapter examines the evidence across three channels through which sustainable investing can create real-world impact. Asset allocation can influence corporate behaviour by affecting asset prices and the cost of capital – rewarding sustainable firms and raising costs for unsustainable ones, though the magnitude of these effects remains modest and context-dependent. Active ownership – proxy voting and engagement – offers a more direct route to change, with some studies finding meaningful success rates, particularly when requests are feasible and backed by credible consequences. Field building operates at a different scale altogether, reshaping the norms, standards, and information environments in which thousands of companies make decisions simultaneously. The honest conclusion is that sustainable investing is neither a placebo nor a panacea. It can make a meaningful contribution, but only when deployed at scale. It will not replace government regulation or systemic reform. But that is the wrong standard. The right question is not whether sustainable investing solves everything, but whether it does something worth doing. The evidence suggests it does.

Keywords: sustainable investing; real-world impact; cost of capital; shareholder engagement; impact investing; field building; divestment; active ownership (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-032-32442-9_6

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-32442-9_6

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