10 Ways Investors Can Drive Positive Change

For decades now, investors have seen how powerfully their decisions can drive impactful outcomes for people and the planet. Here are 10 ways to continue making an impact with your investment dollars.

Morgan Stanley - Wealth Management

Written By: Emily Thomas

Published: December 21st, 2023

Photo Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Investors have a long history of seeking to drive positive change in the world. The end of South African apartheid in the early 1990s, for example, marked the culmination of a decades-long divestment campaign that saw investors successfully pressure companies around the world to cut ties with the country’s apartheid regime.

This movement also gave rise, two decades earlier, to the “Sullivan Principles,” a code of conduct that helped companies resist apartheid policies and set standards for corporate social responsibility that remain influential today. And it helped to bring us some of the earliest socially-conscious investment strategies, including the first ethical mutual funds, which allowed asset managers to act on investors’ behalf to avoid objectionable industries.

Since then, the sustainable and impact investing industry has grown tremendously. Just one example: When the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investing launched in 2006, there were 60 sustainable funds available to investors. By the third quarter of 2023, there were estimated to be more than 7,600 globally.

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