History of Impact Investing

Our colleagues at Worthstone illustrate the evolution to the sustainable and impact investing that we know today in this fantastic video.

Despite sustainability becoming a strong factor in investing decisions only recently, sustainable investing has a long history.

Faith-based communities have long influenced how their members spend and invest their money. Islamic banking, which is grounded in Sharia principles, dates to the beginning of Islam in the seventh century and prohibits investments in alcohol, gambling, and pork.

In the west, Pennsylvanian Quakers had prohibited engaging in the slave trade by 1758. In his 18th century sermon, ‘The Use of Money’, John Wesley, one of Methodism’s founding fathers, mandated what type of company his adherents could and could not invest in, thereby providing us with an early form of negative screening.

These early roots helped coin the term ‘ethical investing’, as well as ‘sin-stocks’, ie the equities of companies involved in those prohibited areas like tobacco, alcohol, and gambling.

Over time, sustainable investing gradually moved from merely excluding certain stocks, to more complex positive screening strategies which aimed to support the environment and society, read more here.