Investments have always had more than just financial impact. Social and environmental impacts also matter.

The BP oil spill, the Apple/Foxconn investigation, and the recent Volkswagen emissions scandal have created worldwide headlines and are fostering a new consciousness among consumers. These events, resulting in lower stock prices, lawsuits, and other problems for the companies involved, are also catching the attention of investors.

Millennials in particular openly discuss which companies are good corporate citizens and which have transgressed ethical norms. Their investing style frequently reflects this interest in environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) issues. Millennials are twice as likely as members of older generations to invest in line with social or environmental principles and to shun investments in companies that engage in activities considered unethical.

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Accordingly, such values will have an increasingly large impact in the financial marketplace over the next 40 years as millennials collectively inherit an estimated $30 trillion in wealth.

This transfer of wealth will accelerate the shift to sustainable investing that is already well underway. Assets invested utilizing one or more strategies of sustainable, responsible and impact investment (SRI) now account for more than one out of every six dollars under professional management in the U.S.

In addition to individual investors, many institutional investors are more interested in SRI. In recent years, universities, foundations and family offices — influenced in part by their millennial stakeholders and constituents — have become increasingly active in this space.

But millennials and future generations of investors need information — comparable data on how companies are addressing sustainability issues such as climate change, water scarcity, and fair labor practices. Investors need better disclosure.

Data for investors to compare companies’ ESG performance isn’t always readily available. Consumers can easily compare Coke and Pepsi on taste, but investors have difficulty accessing comparable metrics, for example, on which company is doing more to combat obesity or derives a higher portion of its water from regions where water is scarce. Investors need companies to disclose such crucial sustainability factors, along with financial fundamentals.

Harvard University research confirms that companies which perform well on sustainability factors enjoy enhanced market returns over firms that perform poorly on such factors. Companies that improve performance on sustainability factors achieve superior results — including return on sales, sales growth, return on assets, and return on equity, in addition to better risk-adjusted shareholder returns.

As a crucial part of the investment ecosystem, money managers must also disclose their ESG criteria and how they use this information. A recent US SIF Foundation report found that half of the 16 leading money managers practicing ESG integration do not fully disclose the specific ESG criteria they consider. Money managers must provide greater disclosure about how they implement ESG strategies. Investors need information about the ESG criteria money managers consider in investment analysis in order to understand how ESG affects their portfolios.

Our organizations are working to improve the quality of disclosure of economic, social and governance factors by companies and to advance the ability of investors to comprehensively integrate ESG factors into their investment decisions.

Investors do not act in a vacuum — they are part of society and their values are reflected in decisions to buy, sell, or hold a stock. It is imperative for capital markets, the agencies that regulate them, and money managers to respond to the growing number of investors who seek better disclosure on ESG risks and opportunities. The strength of our economy and health of our society depend on it.

Lisa Woll is CEO of US SIF: The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment, a professional association that advances sustainable, responsible and impact investing. Jean Rogers is CEO and founderof the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, a non-profit organization that issues sustainability accounting standards to help public corporations disclose material, decision-useful information to investors.