将机构推入SRI和ESG带来更好的基准吗？

Theresa Whitmarsh knows that measuring an investment’s sustainability or social impact is easier said than done.

Whitmarsh是华盛顿州投资委员会的执行董事，两年前批准了投资信念asking portfolio companies and external managers to improve their disclosure of climate-related impacts on performance. Since taking this step toward evaluating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors, the $108.5 billion retirement system has worked with other institutional investors to find and develop reliable metrics. But progress has been slow, Whitmarsh admits: “We have to tread carefully so that we can keep our fiduciary responsibilities and investment goals aligned.”

对社会责任投资（SRI）的增长体制利益，将ESG因素考虑在内，可以加速件事。通过他们的ESG团队，像Blackrock和State Street Global Advisors这样的蓝筹资产管理人员已经开始在推动更好标准的行业团体中发挥更大的作用，这是一项有助于设定基准的举措，Whitmarsh预测。

In September it was reported that TPG Growth, the $7 billion venture capital arm of private equity giant TPG Capital, is joining forces with global impact investing firm Elevar Equity to launch the Rise Fund. This new vehicle, which will make socially responsible investments and work with a partner network to establish metrics, aims to allocate as much as $1 billion.

“我认为我们绝对是一个拐点，”Amerovanka Bandlander，Americas股东服务解决方案，世界各地最大的公司治理提供者和负责任的投资解决方案提供者。“我们的客户在现在每天在SRI / ESG上获得问题，”Badland Adds。“这对我来说是指导我们在一定的方向上移动。”

After seeing the WSIB and other institutions pressure companies to be more transparent, the Securities and Exchange Commission included sustainability factors in itsrecent proposal for changes to corporate disclosure她观察。监管机构正在考虑要求企业报告与气候变化，资源稀缺和人权有关的潜在风险。

“There are now big discrete allocations being made to SRI/impact, which is a change from a few years ago,” says Elevar co-founder and managing director Sandeep Farias. His outfit has attracted money from venture capital firms like Accel Partners and Sequoia Capital and from foundations such as the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation and the Omidyar Network.

Elevar may want to make the world a better place, but it also intends to make money. “Within the SRI space you often hear of funds that are impact-first, which we totally understand,” Farias says. Elevar prefers to look for companies that deliver both impact and commercialization: “If we see trade-offs between the two, we tend not to make those investments.”

该公司更有可能投资，例如，一个专注于低收入人物的社区银行，而不是在一个完全商业化的公司中捐赠给事业的公司。其理想目标创造了一种可扩展的量身定制的产品或服务。“我们希望找到真正了解他们的业务的企业家以及他们想要结果的企业家，”Farias解释道。

考虑到这一点，衡量交易的商业成功的可能性和积极的社会影响至关重要。据报道，仅仅与TPG增长和Bridgespan集团合作，这是一个非营利性咨询公司，其专业知识包括影响投资，就崛起基金的指标和监测过程。

“这些投资的指标的挑战之一是您如何创建普遍应用的基准？”法里亚斯说。“有行业特定的问题;有地理问题 - 它不是一个尺寸适合所有人。“

与环境和社会责任有关的危险因素比治理风险更难量化，因此它们的指标不得较低。到目前为止，WSIB为其作为制度投资者委员会（CII）的创始成员而发挥的优势，这是养老基金协会的养老基金亚博赞助欧冠让自己更好。

“这就是为什么我们的气候投资信念专注于披露，因为我们从潜在资产中脱离了太远，以充分了解环境影响是什么，”WSIB的Whitmarsh解释说。“气候只是一个例子。我们可以谈论供应链或包容性资本主义的劳动问题或任何疑虑。“

国际空间站的半岛认为成功的关键在斯里兰卡will be for managers and investors to take an incremental approach. Some managers have run into trouble because they rushed to respond to a request for a product but lacked the resources to maintain it, she says. “Or when investors try to dive into SRI all at once and don’t fully understand the massive culture shift that requires, then it becomes overwhelming.”

Whitmarsh同意。“积极管理行业有一个大的推动，与产品推出市场，一些机构已经投入，以便他们可以说他们与SRI / ESG原则一致，”她说，并注意到WSIB更喜欢思考 -学期。“最终，我们希望能做的是将SRI / ESG原则的评估纳入我们的基础投资分析，因此它成为我们标准过程的一部分，但我们还没有。”•