Impact investing has soared 40% over the past two years, according to a fresh analysis, as more money flows into strategies that actively seek to save the planet and its people.

Investor allocations to impact investing, which targets specific environmental, social or governance outcomes instead of just screening for ESG risks, now stands at more than $1 trillion, according to the Global Impact Investing Network.

That growth feeds into a maelstrom of discordant views around ESG that have plunged the once obscure investing idea into a heated political debate. In the U.S., GOP states are now pushing through anti-ESG legislation, putatively to protect returns. But GIIN, which this month took charge of ensuring the industry applies credible standards, says investors are turning to impact strategies precisely because they’re a good way to protect returns over time.

“The vast majority of impact investors are seeking risk-adjusted rates of return,” Amit Bouri, chief executive of GIIN, said in an interview. “Many of them have fiduciary obligations that require them to do so.”

A recent survey by GIIN showed that roughly 90% of investment clients think their financial requirements are either being met or exceeded by impact strategies. Investors committing to following the set of operating principles for the industry manage more than $470 billion in impact assets.

Some of the world’s biggest asset managers say that impact investing, done right, can even beat broad market returns.

“We see anything that we offer to our clients and that we’ve labeled as impact investments as squarely delivering market rate or better types of returns,” said Andrew Lee, global head of sustainable and impact investing at UBS Global Wealth Management. He also said that the best returns, when it comes to impact, tend to be in private markets.

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