Sustainable investing

Invest for returns and drive change

There’s always a purpose behind financial investments. What’s yours? Perhaps it’s performance. Or preserving your wealth for the next generation. Or maybe you want your investments to reflect your values. Whatever your purpose, sustainable investing may hold the answer.

There’s plenty to consider when it comes to sustainable investing, so it’s worth starting by getting familiar with the topic.

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Together, we can help you invest in doing good.

What is sustainable investing?

Sustainable investing takes into account the environmental, social and governmental challenges our world faces. For instance, this could relate to the overuse of natural resources, rising levels of pollution or the effects of increasing urbanization.

It’s a way to invest for the returns you expect while staying true to your values. It may be caring about a cause, looking to drive social change or wanting to have sway over how a company or even a country conducts itself.

Myth vs. reality

As with any new investment approach, there are a number of myths around sustainable investing. Here’s our take on them.

Myth

You sacrifice performance 

Sustainable investment returns are comparable to what you can expect from conventional ones.1, 2 According to research, investing sustainably improves returns or doesn't harm them.1 So it's little surprise the global sustainable investment market is growing.

Myth

You can’t measure the impact

With impact investing, you can already see the difference you’re making, since that’s a criteria. Even more promising, companies and funds are reporting their social and environmental impact.

Myth

You need to be an expert
 

A simple way to reflect your values is to choose sustainable investment mutual funds, SMAs or ETFs. By 2023, investors expect sustainable investing to be mainstream, so join the movement.

How to invest sustainability?

Learn everything you need to know to make a difference.

There are three main ways to invest sustainably:

Exclusion

Exclude companies and industries that don’t reflect your values from your portfolio.

Integration

Integrate environmental, social and corporate governance factors into your portfolio to improve your returns and reduce risk.

Impact Investing

Invest with the intention to generate measurable environmental and social impact, alongside a financial return.

Sustainable Visual Globe

Sustainable investments. Our preferred choice.

At UBS, we've just made sustainable investments our preferred choice for private clients investing globally.

What are the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals?

Per the United Nations, the Sustainable Development Goals are the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, and peace and justice. Each Sustainable Development Goal includes clear targets and indicators to track progress toward these objectives.

The goals interconnect. To ensure that no one is left behind, the UN believes it is important that each goal and target is achieved by 2030.

From UBS’s perspective, while not all the SDGs are appropriate for private, return-seeking capital, the scale of many of the related challenges gives rise to significant long-term investment opportunities.4

Sustainable Development Goals
 

Sustainability in action

Click on the tiles below and explore the stories.

 

Sustainable investing insights

Take a closer look at the world of sustainable investments – and discover the difference it could make for you.

Tackling the world's most critical problems together

Our WEF 2020 whitepaper focuses on ways in which investors can align their investments towards a climate smart future.

 

Return on values

For UBS Investor Watch: Return on values, we surveyed more than 5,300 investors in 10 countries on sustainable investing. Explore our report and discover the key findings.

Why UBS is your right partner?

We want to shape the future of sustainable investing. We are also confident that sustainable investing will soon become the world's most widely accepted way of investing.1, 2

Furthermore, as the world's leading wealth manager,3 we feel responsible for helping change things for the better. We have the capital, solutions and expertise to make a big difference globally.

These aren’t just words. We walk the talk. In 2017, we pledge to support our clients in investing USD 5 billion into impact investments over the next five years to help plug funding gaps needed to reach the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). And you’ll always have a team of sustainable investing experts helping you do more for your finances and the world.

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How UBS is making a difference in the world.

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Everyone wins

Wealth Manager of the Year in the Environmental Finance IMPACT Awards 2020.

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Insights

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1 'ESG and financial performance: aggregated evidence from more than 2000 empirical studies', Journal of Sustainable Finance and Investment, Gunnar Friede, Timo Busch, Alexander Bassen, 2015
2 'Introducing the Impact Investing Benchmark', Global Impact Investing Network and Cambridge Associates, 2015
3 Euromoney Private Banking and Wealth Management Survey 2019: Global Results