Global Challenges and Sustainable Development Goals
We believe opportunities exist where investors can achieve financial outcomes by helping to solve critical challenges, and as a result we focus on opportunities where we believe we can optimize and improve Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) performance.
We help our portfolio companies achieve greater financial success, incremental positive impact, and improved ESG performance. We evaluate the impacts of the companies in which we invest and believe that our understanding of managing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues and by integrating ESG economic and societal benefit considerations into our investment processes across asset classes, can improve our opportunities through portfolio company engagement and ongoing support, to create shared value.
The United Nations, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) initiative was developed to recognize that the world’s most important global challenges require mobilization. We believe that these generate significant risks and opportunities, and that companies need to proactively engage on these challenges.
- Work is being increasingly disrupted via automation and digitization and it’s been projected that until 2022, core skills required to perform most roles would change by more than 45%. COVID-19 has accelerated this trend through forced digitization of work. To protect workers and good jobs in this environment will require new modes of delivery of educational services, and improving access and affordability.
- Mitigating and adapting to climate change, via promoting promote energy and resource efficiency can be a source of opportunity for sustainable packaging, mobility and innovative transport.
- Catering for consumers who are increasingly conscious of the waste we generate and its ecological and economic impacts. This calls for innovative and effective responses, in terms of healthy and safe products, circular economy strategies that mitigate waste, and more transparent supply chains.
- As societies and companies build for the future, private capital can invest behind solutions-oriented opportunities and play an important role in addressing the infrastructure gap.
These four investment imperatives are multidimensional, relating to several important SDGs. And companies that respond to those challenges by balancing financial performance and positive societal impact. are increasingly attractive for investment. We can create value for our investors and mobilize resources for the SDGs attainment.
Responsible investment | Governance and Implementation
The landscape is evolving and our stakeholders are demanding more of us in the responsible investment arena. Investing responsibly is smart business and is critical to our ability to unlock value.
Responsible investment is integrated into our Group’s investment practices, in identifying investment opportunities, reducing risk, and enhancing value by addressing ESG issues across the investment life cycle of asset classes.
ESG issues drive where we invest and affect the companies in which we invest, and such issues are managed as part of our investment process, implementing it across relevant asset classes, industries, and geographies.
Accountability for this work extends throughout the organization, supported by subject matter experts.
We follow relevant industry guidelines for responsible investment. At the investment level, we are guided by how the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) identifies financially material issues and we apply this across our activities.
As it relates to ESG management, we evaluate Global Impact portfolio company performance using the topics identified by the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board as a valid input, and track and report progress on our management of these issues over time.