Non-marketed benefits of ecosystem services are often high and sometimes more valuable than the marketed ones. One study of forests in eight Mediterranean countries found that timber and fuelwood generally accounted for less than a third of the total economic value of forests in each country. Non-wood forest products and services such as recreation, hunting, watershed protection and carbon sequestration accounted for the remainder.²³

The early 1990s collapse of the Newfoundland cod fishery due to over-fishing resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of jobs and cost at least $2 billion in income support and retraining.²⁴

Munich Re has estimated that climate change could cost $300 billion annually by 2050.²⁵

Goldman Sachs said in a recent report:
“We view ESG [environmental, social and governance] as a proxy for overall management quality, and believe that leadership on the ESG framework can identify companies focused on the long-term issues affecting their respective industries. This translates into leadership on industry themes, and ultimately, leadership on financial measures.” ²⁶
 

“We have had to educate shareholders about our approach to sustainability. Since we started there has been a tipping point in the attitude of shareholders. There is always a danger that they may think that you are going off on a tangent. Of course, it might have been more difficult had we not been performing well. But now they understand the importance of sustainable development.”
Mervyn Davies, Chairman, Standard Chartered.

Average holding periods for UK equities on the London Stock Exchange have halved since 1997.²⁷

 

In 2005 more than one in seven of the world's largest companies changed CEO, compared with only one in 11 a decade earlier.²⁸

A survey by the US’s National Bureau for Economic Research showed that over half of 400 executives questioned would avoid initiating a project that would be very positive in terms of net present value if it meant falling short of the current quarter's consensus earnings.²⁹

“I have stopped giving earnings forecasts - I will give qualitative guidance but will not nail myself down.  I don’t want to fall into the trap of having to conform to company guidance. This can lead to the wrong decisions being made as the management focus moves from managing the business to managing from quarter to quarter. In the beginning we were punished for this policy. Today some investors say we are right.” Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Nestlé S.A.³⁰

Silicon Valley has emerged as one of the top regions in the US for clean technology investment. Investment in environmental technologies, mainly solar energy generation, energy storage and advanced materials, grew by 178% between Q1 2005 and Q3 2006.³¹

In 2005 almost one dollar in ten under management in the US - $2.3 trillion - was invested in socially responsible investment (SRI) funds. And the European Social Investment Forum estimated in 2006 that SRI investment in Europe had passed €1 trillion.³²

Goldman Sachs anticipates that additional professional managers, although not necessarily adopting a pure SRI mandate, will increasingly incorporate environmental issues into their fundamental analysis.³³

The Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) is an investor-led initiative supported by the
UN Global Compact and United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative. They provide a framework to help investors achieve better long-term investment returns and sustainable markets through better analysis of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues in the investment process and exercise of responsible ownership practices.
Signatories commit to seeking disclosure from companies they invest in on the codes they subscribe to (such as the Global Compact) and ask for standardised reporting on ESG issues using tools such as the Global Reporting Initiative. On its first anniversary on 27 April 2007 it had over 180 leading institutional signatories from all round the globe, representing in excess of US $8 trillion in assets under management.³⁴