Responsible investing is most commonly understood to mean investing in a manner that takes into account the impact of investments on wider society and the natural environment, both today and in the future. The most visible manifestation of this aspect of responsibility has been so-called ‘socially responsible investment’ (SRI). Initially confined to the negative screening of investment funds managed on behalf of specific
religious communities, or targeted at a narrow range of specific issues such as apartheid South Africa, the last decade has seen an extraordinary growth in the scale and breadth of application of SRI. There is over US$ 2 trillion under professional management in the United States linked to some kind of socially responsible investment strategies, a fourfold growth over the last decade.
 
However, the logic of responsible investment — i.e., the deliberate incorporation of material social and environmental considerations in investment decision-making — has yet to be embraced by the wider investment community. Responsible investing remains a boutique segment of the industry despite widespread, if largely anecdotal, evidence that social and environmental factors affect market valuations both positively and negatively.