The Global Sustainability Peer Study 2026 provides a comprehensive benchmark of how leading global asset owners are integrating sustainability into governance, investment strategy and organisational design.
Featuring insights from major funds including CalPERS, APG and NZ Super, the study highlights five major shifts reshaping the industry: systems‑level investing, rising systemic risk, adoption of the Total Portfolio Approach (TPA), decentralised sustainability functions and the expanding role of stewardship. It serves as a practical guide for asset owners seeking to strengthen sustainable investment practices in a rapidly evolving ESG landscape.
Drawing on conversations with C‑suite leaders and analysis of over 3,000 data points across 15 global funds, the study captures an industry undergoing a major strategic reset. Asset owners are moving beyond traditional ESG compliance toward systems‑level (3D) investing, recognising that long‑term returns depend on the health and resilience of the broader environmental, social and economic systems in which their portfolios operate.
Organisational sustainability strategic framework
Key takeaways
- New strategic framing: No-one size fits all for the strategic priorities but system-level (3D) investing is the single biggest opportunity
- Substantive shifts underway: Four key shifts identified to do more with less — Hybrid SI org-design, Embedded SI KPIs, Tech-driven SI reporting, Systemic stewardship
- Investment model adapting: Risk models need re-setting to deal with the increasing impacts of systemic risks – climate, geopolitics, and others
- Sustainability model regrouping: Four dominant themes:
- Concerns about politicisation & regionalisation, primarily the US
- 3D investing evolving beyond Climate focus to Nature and Human Rights
- Net zero investing is complex, but it is still seen as necessary and is maturing
- Risk 2.0 not (yet) top-of-mind factors. Resilience & Systemic Risk are though
Full report
The full report is available now to our members. If you are not a member but would like to view the full report, please reach out to us via email: enquiries@thinkingaheadinstitute.org
Sustainability is entering a new era, one that will need fresh thinking in strategy and governance. Systems‑level (3D) investing is gaining momentum, even as the growing politicisation and regionalisation of ESG continue to reshape the investment landscape.
Roger Urwin
Co-founder, Thinking Ahead Institute
