Colonial First State (CFS) has released ‘Thrive+’, a new sustainable growth fund to help people invest in a more sustainable way that better aligns with their values and objectives.
The fund has been designed to make it easy for those seeking to generate long-term performance to choose investments that align with their personal environmental, social and governance objectives.
Thrive+ also provides access to several leading sustainable investment experts at a lower cost than would otherwise be the case for most individual investors.
CFS developed the fund in response to key research of 4,567 Australians seeking their investment intentions. Forty-six per cent of non-CFS customers with superannuation or managed funds said they will likely switch their investments to a sustainable option in the next two years. This was even higher among CFS customers at 49 per cent.
Most of the Australians surveyed (87 per cent) found the idea of a sustainable investment option appealing. Despite this, a lack of knowledge about sustainability (50 per cent) and concerns about fund performance (41 per cent) and fees (34 per cent) were the top three prohibiting factors in switching to a sustainable fund.
A new online calculator has been developed to estimate the social and environmental benefit an individual’s investment can have for the UN Sustainable Development Goals.