As a member of the so-called “Gen Z”, I hear comments every day about the trends and characteristics of my generation. An increasingly popular movement amongst my younger age group revolves around making positive change – whether through volunteering, creating social awareness, or charitable donations.
In my research for this blog on Gen Z and impact investments, I came across a recent survey by Credit Suisse on the younger generation which found that 64 percent were interested in impact investing but only 24 percent had actually made an impact investment. Further, sustainable and impact investment ranked as the worst asset class in terms of both those who felt their knowledge of it was poor — more than 50 percent — and those who felt their knowledge was excellent — just 8 percent.1 These statistics don’t come as a surprise to me. Before my internship at CCM, I had very little knowledge about impact investing.
In fact, learning more about responsible investing is one of the reasons why I am so excited to intern at CCM. In just my first two weeks, I have learned that there is much more to investing than through traditional portfolio allocations and holdings. Impact investing, as I have learned, is a great way to invest more thoughtfully into securities and/or projects that create positive environmental and social outcomes. Clearly my generation wants to improve society and one way to do so is through impact investing however it is essential to first be educated on this style of investing. Moving forward, I hope to expand my knowledge on responsible investing. When I get back to school in the fall, I plan on joining the Emory Impact Investing Group so I can continue to learn more about impact investing and hopefully apply my experience from this summer internship.
Hope everyone had a great 4th of July!