The Sustainability Stat Pack

Research evidence excerpt

The Sustainability Stat Pack

The Sustainability Stat Pack: May 2026 Edition

About This Report: The Sustainability Stat Pack is your one-stop shop for RBC’s Sustainability Strategy research. It includes all of our latest research covering the

sustainable investment landscape, recent performance trends, our thematic scorecard, and proxy season.

What’s Jumped Out This Month

1. Green Shoots For Sustainable Fund Performance In April: So far in 2026, returns for sustainable funds have slightly underperformed their traditional fund peers.

Performance in 1Q26 was challenged due to the strong outperformance of Energy (a key underweight position for sustainable funds) as well as the

underperformance of the Software industry (a key overweight position for sustainable funds). However, more recently we’ve noticed some green shoots with

sustainable funds outperforming their traditional fund peers. This has occurred as ESG Darlings have started to outperform ESG Underweights again and as

thematic performance has improved through reporting season.

2. Thematic Performance Has Improved Through Reporting Season: Most sustainability themes are now outperforming since the market bottomed in late March.

One contributing factor has been that earnings signals have been trending more positively as we’ve moved through reporting season. Close to half of the themes

we track are now seeing positive revisions trends on our indicator, the overall tone during earnings calls has improved through reporting season, and most

names in our thematic baskets have seen positive stock price reactions to earnings prints. Many companies in our thematic baskets continue to highlight positive

longer-term demand drivers from AI/data centers, US state/ex US sustainability policies, and supply chain security.