The JUST Report: JUST Strategies Gain Amid Ongoing ESG Fund Outflows
According to Morningstar, U.S. ESG funds experienced net outflows in both 2023 and 2024, reversing a decade of growth as traditional sustainability strategies face mounting skepticism. The latest data from GS Sustain also points to 23 consecutive months of outflows for North American sustainable equity funds. Amid this retreat, I’m excited to share that JUST Capital’s stakeholder-focused approach is demonstrating remarkable resilience as of June 30, 2025.
Since inception in December 2016 the JUST U.S. Large Cap Diversified Index (JULCD) has delivered cumulative returns of 231.9%, outperforming the Russell 1000 Cap-Weighted Index by 11.4 percentage points. Meanwhile, our JUST 100 Index has generated an impressive 49.7 percentage points of alpha over its benchmark, with returns of 125.7% versus 76.1% for the Russell 1000 Equally Weighted Index since March 2019.
We also see persistent outperformance at the company level. Those in the top decile of JUST overall scores have outperformed their counterparts in the bottom-decile by a remarkable 90.2 percentage points since January 2018. Notably, companies that prioritize worker investments – providing fair wages, comprehensive benefits, strong health and safety protections, robust training and advancement opportunities, and fostering inclusive workplaces – see the biggest dividends. Top-decile performers in our Worker stakeholder have generated a spread of 129.7 percentage points over their bottom-decile peers since January 2018.
Investors are noticing the opportunity. While traditional ESG investing has declined, the JUST ETF attracted net inflows in both 2024 and year-to-date 2025.
All of this is supported by our proprietary research, which points to an “efficient frontier” of stakeholder performance that varies by industry, by financial measurement, and by the underlying stakeholder issue in question. If you’d like to learn more, please reach out.
Be well,
Martin
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