Where do industry standards like IMP fit into this breakdown? These are quite commonly used by fund managers interested in SDG alignment and /or to align with a specific impact thesis or theory of change or gender (or other ESG) goal. Would you say that those fall under GIIN-types or something else?
I am not too deeply knowledgeable on the IMP but in general it is the right approach to formulate ways on how to promote specific SDG. So, a fund manager following these guidelines will have a good Defence against greenwashing. But in the end, the regulator should, in my view, look at the portfolio and the assets in there as well as the engagement with the management of companies to assess how important the impact dimension is vs the purely financial dimension.
I don’t think regulators need to clock a trade off between financial returns and impact (maybe I am misunderstanding your comment on this), but agree than concrete standards for measurement, portfolio engagement, and intentionality would add value.
I agree, and no, regulators don’t need to determine the concrete trade off but they need to set standards and guidelines that help managers and investors alike to make the case why their investments have impact.
Ben Graham never heard of impact.
Where do industry standards like IMP fit into this breakdown? These are quite commonly used by fund managers interested in SDG alignment and /or to align with a specific impact thesis or theory of change or gender (or other ESG) goal. Would you say that those fall under GIIN-types or something else?
I am not too deeply knowledgeable on the IMP but in general it is the right approach to formulate ways on how to promote specific SDG. So, a fund manager following these guidelines will have a good Defence against greenwashing. But in the end, the regulator should, in my view, look at the portfolio and the assets in there as well as the engagement with the management of companies to assess how important the impact dimension is vs the purely financial dimension.
I don’t think regulators need to clock a trade off between financial returns and impact (maybe I am misunderstanding your comment on this), but agree than concrete standards for measurement, portfolio engagement, and intentionality would add value.
I agree, and no, regulators don’t need to determine the concrete trade off but they need to set standards and guidelines that help managers and investors alike to make the case why their investments have impact.
Dear Joachim, thanks for this thoughtful and interesting article and the research. Would be great to catch up on this at some stage. Best wishes, Will