At Invested Development, we strive to make a global impact through our investments in innovative solutions to global challenges. The articles below look at the evolution of sustainable investing and explore what the future might look like for the space.
Mission-Driven Business by Eric Nee on Stanford Social Innovation Review
One of the guiding principles behind the launch of the Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) in 2003 was the belief that social innovations would arise from the “creative crossing of boundaries by organization from the nonprofit, for-profit, and government sectors” according to Nee, managing editor of SSIR. At the time, this proposed sector crossing was uncommon. Businesses and investors needed to find ways to incorporate a social mission into their strategy, nonprofits needed to find ways to apply business approaches to solving social problems and government needed to refocus the way it worked with each sector, respectively.
Today, this approach to solving social problems is increasingly commonplace. This article recognizes two businesses that have successfully adopted a social mission as part of their work.
The Next Stage of Sustainable Investing by Joe Keefe on Huffington Post
In the coming years, investing will become more about goals and solutions than simply equities vs. fixed income or large-cap vs. small-cap. Following the economic downturn in 2008, the market saw an influx of non-correlated or alternative offerings and the financial services industry will continue to come out with new products, both in response to actual investor needs and those simply designed to gather assets and revenues.
Even after the market has surged back and investor’s assets have been largely restored, many remain spooked by the market. Joe Keefe, President and CEO of Pax World Funds suggests that to truly serve investors today we need to have at least a partial answer to the question of trust and related risk that is at the heart of investing. One way to do this is to look beyond diversification and asset allocation and speak to investor’s goals that involve what they wish to accomplish in their lives, and how their money relates to that. Sustainable investing, in that regard, can be part of the solution.
Gender-Lens Investing: From Margins To Mainstream by Stephanie Marton on Forbes
The gender-lens investment movement calls for investors to use gender as a category for analysis in company diligence, prioritizing deals on value opportunities in companies that are led by women, that promote gender equity and those that benefit women through products and services. The investment thesis supporting the movement states that gender-lens investing is both the right moral move and the smart financial play. This economic thesis emerged from the moral imperative to support women in business yet by using the moral language of a social movement, we risk halting our progress forward. Marton, a management consultant specializing in strategy and organization suggests that it’s time to leave behind the social cause in order to attract the most committed capital and capable investors.
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