Russell Investments’ 2023 Manager ESG Survey shows more investment managers are reporting ESG metrics for their funds.

The survey covers responses from 169 equity, fixed income, real assets, and private markets asset managers globally. The collective assets under management for 2023 was nearly US$20 trillion.

The key findings from this year’s report include:

Managers continue to hire into ESG-related roles: 75% of participants reported hiring dedicated ESG personnel, primarily to ESG or sustainability teams.

ESG integration: Active ownership emerged as the number one ESG information source. Only 7% said that ESG factors do not drive investment decisions, markedly down from the 22% recorded in 2022.

Data is still one of the biggest challenges to integrating ESG information: Respondents emphasised the hurdles posed by inadequate disclosures and insufficient standardisation of disclosure frameworks for companies, data providers, and rating agencies.

Managers continue to increase reporting of ESG metrics: A higher proportion of managers this year indicated they are reporting ESG metrics for all funds. In 2023, 66% of managers reported providing ESG reporting for all strategies while 10% provide it for ESG-labelled strategies only.

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