Alex Hooctor-Duncan，Aberdeen标准投资的全球负责人，讨论了影响投资的不断发展和及时的话题。
The environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues facing the world today are no doubt on the rise. This goes hand-in-hand with the rising popularity of impact investing. According to the latest annual survey from the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), the market was worth US $715 billion at the end of 2019. Not long ago, we could have called it a fledgling discipline, or a niche area that was attractive to only a select few investors.
The current landscape
今天，影响投资已经牢牢地进入主流。它的普及升高并不是令人惊讶的是，在全球范围内的数量和严重程度都会增加ESG问题。其中是全球大流行，气候变化的影响，不平等不等，越来越多的民粹主义政治。
More and more investors want to address these issues as they become increasingly sophisticated in understanding them. And, importantly, they want to do so while earning a positive return. Impact investors want to invest today to change tomorrow, but they also understand that respecting people and our planet is a legitimate and valuable business strategy.
Many see the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) as the most useful guide available for determining impact investment policy. The UN set the 17 SDGs nearly five years ago, with the aim of guiding global policy and funding over 15 years. Ban Ki-moon, who was UN Secretary-General at the time, called them “our shared vision of humanity and a social contract between the world’s leaders and the people”.
业内会议需求？
To meet the growing demand of the environmental and socially-conscious investor needs of today, the industry has reacted with a plethora of products. For example, there are approaches that aim to address a single SDG, while others try to meet more than one. Some also have a completely different agenda, while still sitting underneath the impact-investing umbrella.
然而，随着投资者寻求了解如何最好地衡量其投资决策的表现，丰富的选择增加了一层复杂性。虽然近年来市场已经大大增长，但许多可用产品的轨道记录相对较短，因此性能记录可以是衡量金融指标的有用指示。
Measuring up
But a burning question of impact investing is how we measure against the non-financial targets? The tangible evidence that suggests our investment decisions are making a difference to the world. There are currently no standardised measures by which to gauge how or if a particular investment product is meeting its goals. This is a developing area that generates much debate. What we do know, is that a clearly defined impact objective, investment framework and analysis process, as well as clear measurement targets are essential in making an impact investing strategy successful.
从全球股权影响投资视角，积极的参与方法至关重要。为了管理有意义的影响投资策略，资产管理人员需要积极和定期与公司一起聘用。通过这样做，他们可以了解有关每公司的可持续发展战略和影响的更多信息。他们还可以评估其管理，鼓励对ESG问题的最佳实践和交换意见。这是在评估非财务影响方面，这是洞察力和理解的洞察力和理解程度。
Once the impacts have been measured, there still begs the question of how to convey the information to investors in a useful and meaningful way. Reporting across the industry is not yet standardised, but nevertheless, it is extremely important that investors see a regular, detailed and transparent account of the impact of their investment. This approach helps to build context and unravels the impact investing story for the investor as they address some of the most pressing issues affecting the environment and society today.
