The study highlights the scale of European SRI as well as European and National trends across thirteen countries, including for the first time Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.

The total SRI assets under management (AuMs) have reached €2.665 trillion as of December 31, 2007 and represent as much as 17.5% of the asset management industry in Europe. This corresponds to a remarkable growth of 102% since December 31, 2005.

Eurosif’s study finds that the European SRI market’s growth is driven by:

• An increasing demand from institutional investors, for which responsible investment becomes a matter of risk management, particularly around the area of climate change,
• A further mainstreaming of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) considerations into traditional financial services,
• External pressure from NGOs and media,
• A growing interest from individuals, particularly wealthy individuals.

Eurosif continues to segment the SRI market with Core SRI estimated at €512 billion and Broad SRI at €2.154 trillion. Core SRI consists of elaborated screening strategies systematically impacting portfolio construction and often implying a values-based approach while Broad SRI partly represents the mainstreaming of SRI and the growing interest of responsible investors, particularly large institutional investors, in this area.