Sustainable investing offered more downside protection during the market downturn, according to recent data from Backend Benchmarking and research from asset managers.

In the first-quarter’s coronavirus-driven market decline, 94% of sustainable indexes outperformed, BlackRock research shows.

The firm said that 88% of sustainable indexes did better than their non-sustainable counterparts in the first four months of 2020.

“The world has become more digital, less global and more local,” says Amy Lo, co-head of the firm’s Asia Pacific wealth division.

There’s a lot to complain about these days, from the effectiveness of the government’s $3 trillion stimulus package to unlimited quantitative easing.

Fallout from the deepest worldwide downturn since the Great Depression has magnified economic and social inequality across the globe.

CEO Larry Fink announced a new focus on ESG in January, however the coronavirus has pushed a separate set of urgent issues into the forefront.

"Asset managers need to be faster and smarter to make the right bets in a fast-changing external environment.”

Managers who are can differentiate with solid ESG credentials stand to prosper, especially as a younger generation begins saving for investment.

While the sustainable industry accounts for less than 1% of the $20.7 trillion held in U.S. mutual funds and ETFs, the space is growing fast.