7/9/2017
Impact investing has become a buzzword lately, where investors can achieve positive social impact alongside financial returns. Yet the popular strategy is still in its infancy and lacks a lot of the resources and infrastructure of classic investing. Several organizations and foundations are looking to change that, by focusing their attention on ways to make impact investing more measurable, seamless, and accessible.
The World Resources Institute created Aqueduct, a data overlay tool that assesses the environmental risks of an investment. To increase access and usability, they persuaded Bloomberg to integrate Aqueduct into their online terminals. The McKnight Foundation used its sway to customize an eco-friendly equity product. The billion-dollar foundation worked with its financial advisors to co-create the Carbon Efficiency Strategy fund, which tracks the U.S. stock market, but with a heavy concentration in low carbon-emitting companies. Matching social entrepreneurs with investors, the Calvert Foundation provides ongoing administrative support for large-scale funding transactions with its newly launched Capital Aggregation business. With efforts like these, impact investing stands to solidify its position as a powerful, enduring tool to affect societal change. READ MORE