Council Post: Millennials And The Mainstreaming Of SRI (2024)

FAQs

Why are more millennials investing in Sri Socially Responsible Investments? ›

People no longer see investing and solving social problems as mutually exclusive. They want to invest their money where it actively benefits social and environmental concerns while also achieving competitive market rate returns—a kind of social capitalism.

Of the Gen Z and millennial respondents, 62% said it was "very important" or "extremely important." That is still a strong majority but a substantial drop from 82% in 2022. Similar drops were seen for environmental and governance issues.

Similarly previous research shows members of Gen Z agree with the scientific community in that global warming is caused by human activities and has life-threatening impacts – facts influencing these young people to develop symptoms of anxiety, stress and depression [35, 37, 38, 46].

SRI is a type of investing that keeps in mind the environmental and social effects of investments, while ESG focuses on how environmental, social and corporate governance factors impact an investment's market performance.

More than half of Gen Z adults are already invested—with 26% of that group invested in the stock market—yet only one in four feel they understand the stock market well enough to explain how it works to a friend. And of all financial concepts, they feel most confident about spending and saving.

This is an overall significant improvement compared to the $5 billion invested in ESG-focused funds back in 2015. Other research by Morgan Stanely found that 90% of Millennials surveyed were interested in pursuing sustainable investments, compared to more traditional strategies.

In the U.S., 84% of individual investors are interested in sustainable investing. As also seen in previous Sustainable Signals surveys, this interest is highest among Millennials (96%) and Generation X (91%).

The ESG industry helps highlight companies that may be riskier than traditional investing guidelines alone might suggest. Using an ESG lens could help investors find better, more profitable opportunities.

Gen Zers spend most of their disposable income on dining out, according to a report by Morning Consult.

What is the difference between Gen Z and millennials? ›

Millennials were born between 1981 and 1996 while members of the Gen Z years Gen Z years were born between 1997 and 2012. Millennials expect faster customer service. Gen Z tends to be better at accepting delayed gratification than millennials. Millennial customer service expectations are higher than Gen Z customers.

Millennials tend to prefer visual content compared to text-heavy content. They like content that is personalized and resonates with their liking and interest. They also tend to share content with their immediate circle if they relate to a piece of content.

It's a model built to drive consumers toward impulse purchases and an endless cycle of disposable outfits, said Tahirah Hairston, fashion and beauty director at Teen Vogue. […] Sustainable Fashion for All? There is another reason many Gen-Zers prefer fast fashion over more eco-friendly alternatives: it's cheap.

From issues like discrimination and human rights to personal safety and violence, it's all stressful to younger Americans. But, like their older counterparts, health- and finance-related concerns topped the list of stressors.

Generation Z (often shortened to Gen Z), colloquially known as Zoomers, is the demographic cohort succeeding Millennials and preceding Generation Alpha. Researchers and popular media use the mid-to-late 1990s as starting birth years and the early 2010s as ending birth years.

Investors cited that their growing interest in sustainable investing is due to factors including new climate science findings (53%) and the financial performance of sustainable investments (52%). A majority of investors also believe that companies should address environmental and social issues.

Socially responsible investing, or SRI, is an investing strategy that aims to help foster positive social and environmental outcomes while also generating positive returns.

A study by Inyova in Germany determined that 86% of millennials are interested in impact investing and are twice as likely to invest in funds related to ESG causes. Moreover, the newer generations, such as 72% of Gen Z's, see sustainable funding as a long- term solution.

Investors increasingly believe companies that perform well on ESG are less risky, better positioned for the long term and better prepared for uncertainty. Companies that realign to the stakeholder capitalism agenda may have a competitive advantage over those that try to return to business as usual.