• "This is a wake-up-call" for corporate leaders, Lex Suvanto, global managing director of financial communications and capital markets at Edelman, told Axios.

By the numbers: Edelman's latest Trust Barometer — a subset of the larger survey that the giant P.R. company puts out each January — polled 600 institutional investors in six countries, who collectively manage more than $9 trillion.

• 84% said that "maximizing shareholder returns can no longer be the primary goal of the corporation."
• More than half said "ESG initiatives lead to a favorable impact on company growth."
• 55% said board diversity "has a significantly positive impact on trust."
• 61% have "increased their investment allocation to companies that excel when it comes to ESG factors."
• According to Edelman, virtually all investors surveyed "expect the board of directors to oversee at least one ESG topic."

The lesson, Suvanto said, is that ESG priorities are "no longer optional" for companies as they seek to attract investors and employees — and to deflect protests.

• "Investors are starting to draw straight lines" between corporate investments and societal values, he said.
• As little as 18-24 months ago, the survey results around ESG would have looked quite different, according to Edelman.

The big picture: "ESG" is a bit of a squishy category, referring to anything from funds that shun tobacco or firearms firms to corporations that try to apply various political yardsticks.

• Investors who put ever-increasing amounts of money into so-called ESG investments can't always be certain they're getting what they bargained for.
• The United Nations adopted a broad set of "principles for responsible investing" over a decade ago, but there still aren't any specific definitions or standards for "ESG."
• Marketing pitches for these supposedly halo-wearing investments often go overboard.

On the plus side, evidence is mounting that ESG investments can equal the returns — or even outperform — investments without socially conscious screens. And momentum seems to be building in favor of ESG:

• The Business Roundtable said in August that companies must embrace social purpose even as they pursue profits.
• MSCI, the huge research and index firm, just published ESG ratings for thousands of companies "in a push to improve transparency in the rapidly growing ESG industry," as the WSJ put it.
• An Edelman report from 2018 found that "more and more people in the U.S. and worldwide believe brands should take a stand on societal issues."

Reality check: No, millennials aren't driving this. According to Suvanto of Edelman, concerns about ESG were "consistent across age cohorts."

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Show me the money: The CBRE report pegs 2020 investment in the sector at $478–$502 billion, which would be "on par with the prior two years" and would represent "one of the strongest years on record."

• That includes money put toward multifamily housing, retail, data centers, office space, industrial buildings, etc.
• "Amid slower economic growth and global uncertainty, U.S. commercial real estate will remain a haven for investment in 2020," the report predicts.
• Factors cited for CBRE's bullishness: low inflation, low interest rates, strong consumer spending, increased capital flows into the sector, and solid property fundamentals.

Furthermore, CBRE asserts: "Barring any unforeseen risks, we assess that a recession will be avoided, thanks in large part to the stimulatory effects of the Fed's rate cuts in 2019."

Yes, but: CBRE also foresees "tempered growth" in the market because of "uncertainty surrounding trade negotiations, weakness in manufacturing and the approach of the presidential election season," according to a release.

Bottom line: "Next year will bring deceleration on a few fronts, but this still is an expanding economy and a flourishing property market," said Richard Barkham, CBRE's chief economist and head of Americas research, said in a statement.

• "We'll see resilience across asset classes such as office, retail and multifamily as demand continues to buoy those sectors. And we see transaction volumes and capitalization rates staying relatively stable."

Details: "Amid slower economic growth and global uncertainty, U.S. commercial real estate will remain a haven for investment in 2020," the report predicts.

• Factors cited for CBRE's bullishness: low inflation, low-interest rates, strong consumer spending, increased capital flows into the sector and solid property fundamentals.

Yes, but: "Uncertainty surrounding trade negotiations, weakness in manufacturing and the approach of the presidential election season," are risks to the industry's growth, according to a release.

Go deeper:

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