8 March 2020

Afdhel Aziz's tour de force of 'The Power Of Purpose' in Forbes 👍👍👍

Great summary with stat's of why purpose is important for companies for its employees and investors: 

1. 64% of Millennials won’t take a job if their employee doesn’t have a strong CSR... and millenials will make 75% of the workforce by 2025
2. Gen-Z is coming into the workforce and is the first generation to prioritize purpose over salary
3. purpose-driven companies had 40 percent higher levels of workforce retention than their competitors

And for investors a long-term study by the Torray project show that ethical and stakeholder-focus is a driver for stock returns.  

Torrey Project Shareholder Returns

 THE TORREY PROJECT

UBS increases impact investments, but tightens rules on energey  👊👊👊

"‘Sustainable’ investments rose by more than 50% to nearly $500 billion in 2019, while lending to the energy and utilities sectors fell by 40% as it tightened its rules."

The bank had toughened guidelines for lending to the energy sector and is not financing new greenfield thermal coal mines, offshore oil projects in the Arctic or greenfield oil sands projects. 

The bank also outlined rules for lending to firms that have >30% reserves or production in Arctic oil and/or oil sands.

Why it remains confusing to invest in ESG 😕😕😕

Opinion piece in the Financial Times outlining some of the issues investors face when investing in ESG and when one looks beyond the 'labels' and 'buzzwords' associated with funds and management companies: ethical, impact, socially  responsible or just ESG.   

31 July 2019

Video link outlining rise of impact investing 📺📺📺[Forbes / Youtube] 

Video explains how impact investing works - nice visuals! 

Some social impact bond suggestions for retirees💲💲💲 [Kiplinger] 

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Morgan Stanley launches new tool to measure social investing goals 👍👍👍[CNBC]

Morgan Stanley is launching a new tool to help its wealth management clients identify their sustainable investing goals and track how well their portfolios match those priorities.

Morgan Stanley Impact Quotient draws from big data and other analytic data sources to track sustainable investing performance alongside other traditional metrics like returns and risk.

Why foundations are slow in embracing impact investing💥💥💥 [Pioneer] 

Excellent opinion piece by Felix Oldenburg as he outlines some of his learnings of why foundations are so slow in embracing impact investing and outlines new approaches.

Trevor Neillson of of i(x) investments and the idea for holding impact investors accountable [Forbes]

This summer, Neilson, CEO and co-founder of i(x) investments, a four-year-old company leveraging finance for socially- and environmentally-driven companies, launched another event, adding to the roster of impact conferences. However, this one asks those attending to make public commitments on how their company is going to tackle a global problem: climate change, food waste, human trafficking, energy.

29 July 2019

Fund manager Schroders buys impact investing firm Blue Orchard [Financial Times]

Schroders has become the first large European fund group to place a sizeable bet on the “impact investing” market after buying a majority stake in BlueOrchard Finance in a deal valuing the specialist boutique at more than £100m... BlueOrchad has $ 3.5 bn assets under management and is based in Zurich. 

Which metrics and method to measure success? [Private Equity News] 

PE firms involved in impact investing are looking at options for measurement and metrics. In the moment it seems that there are a variety of approaches used, showing that the industry still hasn’t established universal metrics in its effort to find comparable measurement methods which in turn can leave new investors confused. 

Pacific Live Insurance explains why they no longer supported Swell [Bloomberg] 

“Although we believe in the value of sustainable impact investing, the Swell model is not a long-term fit for our core business strategy,” Pacific Life said in a statement. The insurer owned 100% of Swell and will control its remaining assets, including its technology, after it shuts down. Client accounts will be closed and the assets returned, with management fees waived for August. 

Swell may also just have been too early. Millennials and Gen-Xers are expected to inherit $30trillion of wealth in a massive generational transfer over the next 30 years. Swell’s collapse makes clear that just hasn’t started yet.

$15m Impact Bond to improve lifes of small and marginal farmers in India [The Hindu] 

Mumbai-based wealth advisory firm Waterfield Advisors will soon launch a $15-million Development Impact Bond (DIB) for the farm sector. This is the first DIB raised with domestic funds from ultra high networth individuals (UHNI) and family foundations. The initiative is to transform the livelihood of 6,500 small and marginal households, which, in turn, will help in creating ‘lakhpatis’ in Jharkhand, Gujarat and Odisha. 

28 July 2019

Insurance companies invest in social determinants of health

Insurance companies such as Humana, Inc. (NYSE:HUM) and Anthem, Inc. (NYSE:ANTM) are using the concept of social determinants of health to guide investment decisions. 

41% of hedge fund managers use ESG ratings to screen stocks, relying on Bloomberg and Sustainability

41% of hedge fund managers consider environmental, social and governance factors in stock selection ... and overwhelming rely on the governance factor in stock selection. Of 70 hedge fund managers surveyed the preferred providers of ESG ratings were Bloomberg and Sustainanalytics, with 33% each; MSCI with 21%; and Thomson Reuters at 13%.

Indonesia should leverage islamic finance and impact investing to achieve SDGs 

Islamic finance objectives are aligned with impact investing. The mix of Islamic finance and impact investment can create opportunities to overcome the gap in the funding towards the achieving of the SDGs.

Social Impact Bond in Rajastan, India tackles maternal mortality 

The bond was launched in February 2018 for USD 9 M and is backed by USAID and Merck for mothers with the objective to improving maternal health outcomes by supporting up to 440 Small Healthcare Organisations to improve services and meet new government quality standards. 

SWELL, a millennial- and Generation Z-focused ESG investing service app, closed down 

The two-year-old Santa Monica, California-based investing app focused on environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) investing, said on Wednesday it was shutting down. The company has $ 33 M in assets and 43 employees and over 14,000 users. 

25 July 2019

Short update: 

Social Impact Bond to grow Rhino population in Kenya

(Bloomberg)... "Under the program, the five-year bond will cover conservation efforts at five sites in South Africa and Kenya where about 700 black rhinos, or about 12% of the world’s population of the animals, live. Investors will be paid back their capital and a yield if the number of animals increases. The target is to boost the world’s black rhino population by 10%." 

Asset manager CCM is investing in fixed income bonds to promote community development

CCM (Community Capital Management) $ 2.1 billion fund invests 1/3 of assets to in support of affordable housing, solar projects, “green” car leases, and finance institutions that “bank the unbankable". Each investment done is accompanied by an impact report so that CCMs clients understand what impact is achieved. 

John Levy explains five building blocks for successful impact management 

John explains how fix building blocks can help investors build impact management systems that are both tailored to their strategic focus and aligned with best practices. These are: objectives, standards, certifications, methodologies and metrics.  

City of Atlanta has new $ 14 m fund for green infrastructure 

(Conservationfinancenetwork)... "The city of Atlanta has new funds for green infrastructure. In January 2019, the city — in partnership with impact investing intermediary firm Quantified Ventures — closed a $14 million environmental impact bond (EIB) for stormwater management in the city’s Proctor Creek watershed. The city plans to use the funds for green infrastructure projects that aim to control stormwater flow and improve water quality."

22 July 2019

Quick update:

UK based Impact Investing Institute appoints Sarah Gordon as CEO

The Institute that promotes the UK as a leader in the field of impact investing has appointed the former Financial Times journalist Sarah Gordon has been appointed the first CEO of the new Impact Investing Institute. 

Call for Social Impact Investment to tackle racial inequality by Bonnie Chiu in Forbes

A call for action by Bonnie Chiu to help steer the industry to focus on racial inequality issues... "Gillian Marcelle, an impact investing professional and racial justice advocate, says, “At this point in the lifecycle of an industry, ways of being and mindsets become  hard coded.  Impact investing is in a high growth phase, and is maturing and becoming more legitimate.  Therefore, we must tackle racial diversity now or run the risk that this does not become a burning issue, but remains marginalized and considered non-core.” ... 

What is the difference between an impact audit and an impact assessment? Not so clear, but some great learnings!...

Nesta (managing a UKP 17.6 m VC fund in the UK) used an impact audit by ITAD (a highly respected monitoring and evaluation consulting firm) to better understand what difference impact investing makes. Great insights on how to use monitoring and evaluation insights to drive strategy. The only question I had was whether this was an audit or an assessment or an evaluation... for you to decide! 

The Beginning

This blog has as its only purpose to summarize on a regular basis developments and news from Social Impact Investing. 

Selection or the news is done by myself based on what I find of interest. I do not get any funding or sponsorship. 

Why? If done right social impact investing can have tremendous impact on society and the environment and is a great tool to leverage private sector approaches to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.