The term impact investing was coined in 2007, the same year the first iPhone was released, and since then, they’ve both had dramatic impacts on our world.
While the concept of investing-for-impact had certainly been around prior to 2007, the meeting of leading investors, at the Bellagio hotel in Italy, was a pivotal moment. It marked the foundation of the concept of targeting investments that have a measurable social or environmental impact, as well as a decent financial return.
At OnImpact we want to both explore this history, while also contributing to the growth and evolution of impact investing.
OnImpact is a source of up-to-date news and insights about the impact investment industry. It explores the ideas, characters and deals that are reshaping modern finance through new philosophies of investing, through advancing the interests of a wide variety of stakeholders (not just shareholders) and through exploring solutions to social and environmental issues with the pragmatic language of business and finance.
Our mission is to drive better environmental and social outcomes through uncovering profound stories of investors and businesses committed to positive impact.
We want to highlight the savvy business people who are building organisations that measure their impact, as diligently as they measure their revenue and earnings. We’ll explore and dissect the constantly evolving array of frameworks and management systems. And we’ll bring you vibrant case-studies about the impact that targeted capital allocations are having in less developed countries, where progress towards the SDGs can be life-changing.
Our team, our evolution
The publication is a continuation and an evolution of the pioneering work done by the team behind the Impact Investment Summit Asia Pacific. Alex Feher and Rob Irving have been stalwarts of the impact space for much of the past decade, and that won’t change.
But they’ll now also be guided by their eminent Advisory Board and supported by their new partner, Intermedia, who have long experience in publishing and event production.
And of course OnImpact is edited by me, John Treadgold, a sustainable investment specialist whose voice and writing you may know from my podcast, Good Future, and my broader coverage of the space.
Financial Disruption
The iPhone’s disruption was profound. It brought us a new world of connectivity, and media saturation. It gave everyone a voice, but it also turned up the volume.
Impact investing is causing a similar wave of disruption across the finance industry. It’s encouraging a deep assessment of what’s measured and how; it’s forcing an internalisation of what was previously shrugged-off as negative-externalities. And most importantly, it’s returning the humanity to investing, it’s aligning empathy with financial analysis to identify deals with wisdom, courage and action.
This optimism must also be tempered with the reality of the term being overused, or applied to investments that only ingrain the status-quo. The growing problem of ‘Impact-washing’ is both a sign of the concept’s success, but also a cautionary tale, that practitioners shouldn’t get too caught up in their own hype.
Impact Investing has huge potential to create positive change, and to retrofit our capitalism for a new, better future. But it’s up to us to ensure it’s done with integrity, that it’s designed for the long-term, and that it encompasses all of humanity, not just the fortunate few.
This is our mission, so please, join us on the journey.
—
To receive the stories as they happen, SIGN-UP to the OnImpact Newsletter. Your weekly source of impact updates.