What makes our approach to impact investing unique?
Differentiating between investment products across the industry is becoming increasingly challenging.
Thanks to the rise of ‘greenwashing’ and now ‘impact washing’, transparency and authenticity are more important than ever. What's our solution? Radical transparency. Being as open and transparent as possible about our approach to impact investing.
We've set out our perspective in a White Paper where we:
- Explain the different types of investment impact
- Discuss impact investing in the context of listed equities
- Make the case for WHEB’s holistic model of impact investment in listed equities*
* combining requirements from the Global Impact Investing Institute (GIIN) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
WHEB's theory of change
We describe below our 'theory of change' - the sequence of cause-and-effect actions that connect WHEB's activities with the specific positive social and environmental outcomes that we are targeting. This theory of change frames all of WHEB's investment activities.
What sits at the core of being an impact investor? Intention.
The decision to invest must be clearly based on the ‘enterprise impact’ of the business. By ‘enterprise impact’ we mean the impact delivered by the products and services of the portfolio company.
The impact story needs to be a significant part of the investment case and we need to intend for the investment to contribute to positive impact.
We're dedicated to investing in this way. For each of our nine investment themes we've set out a ‘problem statement’ that we're trying to solve. We then set out a ‘theory of change’ that explains how the portfolio company’s products and services help address this particular challenge.
Clients and their advisers want to know that we're investing their money in a way that aligns with their values and enables positive outcomes.
We embrace this deeper client interest in our portfolio companies and we've made a commitment to radical transparency in sharing information about our philosophy, policies and practices.
When WHEB supports portfolio companies, we make our own contribution to increasing positive outcomes - and this, in turn, directly impacts the share price.
But while this support benefits portfolio companies in multiple ways, there are two additional key areas where we make a contribution as investors:
- Enterprise level: For example through stewardship activities such as engagement with companies and proxy voting at AGMs.
- Systems level: These are engagements aimed at the wider financial system that indirectly support positive impact businesses.
WHEB’s contribution in these areas includes engagement downstream with regulators, policy makers and standard setters, as well as upstream back to clients and their advisers.
The vast majority of WHEB’s impact comes through the investments we make on your behalf.
However, as a business we also have a direct social and environmental footprint. We seek to maximise the positive impact that we have through our
own operations.
Impact investing guide
We've put together a guide to impact investing to help explain the the concepts used to discuss impact investing.
This guide is intended to be introductory and provides links to more comprehensive literature towards the end.
Impact investing glossary
We want impact investing to be accessible to everyone.
It can be challenging to keep up with the evolving terminology and acronyms in the sustainability investment world. That's why we've put together a short glossary to help you navigate through the jargon.
