By Emma Montocchio, Head of Impact Investment Solutions at Decusatio
You can pick any acronym or buzzword and you’ll find that it’s being vociferously debated at every level in corporations across the globe, with supporters and detractors trying to get their points across.
Net zero. ESG. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Enterprise and Supplier Development (ESD). Socio-Economic Development (SED). Corporate Social Investment (CSI)…
As a business, we tend to prefer the term “impact investing”.
“Impact” because this is the desired outcome from these activities.
“Investing” because these projects do need to be viewed through a lens of delivering economic returns for stakeholders.
Globally, the increasing focus on social responsibility and social impact investments has grown significantly in recent years as more companies seek to benefit from the positive outcomes of their investments. According to the Global Impact Investment Network (GIIN) this market now has over $1.16-trillion in assets under management and according to research out of Riscura in 2022, South Africa has over 120 impact investment funds that are operational.
Companies are embracing the idea of making contributions that benefit both the environment and society and there is an increased focus on impact investments that have the potential to generate both financial returns and positive social outcomes beyond ad-hoc ESD, SED and CSI initiatives.