The UK Social Investment Market: The Current Landscape and a Framework for Investor Decision Making (2012)

While the UK market is often considered a leader in the social investment space, UK institutional investors often struggle to define the context in which to evaluate and move forward with social investing. (Cambridge Associates defines social investments as investments that generate a monetary return while also generating a social return or minimising a social risk.)

In an effort to help guide investors through some of the major steps in exploring social investments, Cambridge Associates has developed a framework to help institutional investors evaluate and implement social investments into diversified portfolios. Cambridge Associates believes evaluating social investments should be an extension of the familiar risk and return analysis applied to all investments and that traditional portfolio construction best practices still apply. The new framework stands out because it integrates social risk and social return with customary financial risk-return metrics.