2020

The SDG Action Manager is a digital tool designed to help organisations measure their impact across various sustainability areas, set goals aligned with the SDGs, and track progress over time. The questionnaire, which draws from B Lab’s B Impact Assessment and the UN Global Compact’s 10 Principles, enables organisations to collect performance information on the SDGs that are most relevant to manage, based on its size, sector and geography. It was developed through research and public consultation and so provides an evidence-based starting point for identifying sustainability topics to measure.

Use this resource for the following Actions of Impact Management:

• Governance: Prioritise governance mechanisms that address the organisation’s key sustainability risks and enhance its resilience against potential challenges.
• Identify: Understand the most relevant SDGs to manage based on the organisation’s size, sector, and geography.
• Measure, assess and value: Obtain a set of metrics.
• Set targets and plan: Set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) targets related to sustainable development. Organisations can align their targets with the specific indicators and targets outlined in the SDGs.

Regulation that sets out performance thresholds for organisations to classify their economic activities as “sustainable” according to European policy objectives.

Use this resource to:

• Identify: Find the economic activities that correspond to the financial institution’s activities and review what the taxonomy says about likely impacts on sustainability. This can be an input into identifying sustainability topics to measure. This regulation is based on research connecting economic activities to likely significant impacts on six environmental objectives. Currently, research related to objectives of climate change mitigation and adaptation are most developed.
• Measure, assess and value: Assess whether underlying assets are sustainable. Underlying assets that fall under the taxonomy regulation will report on the portion of their revenue, capital expenditure and operational expenditure that are ‘taxonomy aligned’, and therefore considered a ‘sustainable investment’ according EU policy objectives.
• Set targets and plan: Set objectives for a portion of the portfolio to be ‘taxonomy-aligned’. Regulation provides investors with a set of performance thresholds that have to be met for an underlying asset to be viewed as operating sustainably in relation to one the EU’s six environmental objectives. Underlying assets that are ‘taxonomy aligned’ are generating sustainable outcomes and are therefore also ‘Benefiting stakeholders’.

This handbook assists impact investors with integrating their impact considerations into their investment practices. It provides practical strategies, tools and case studies to help investors align their financial goals with positive social and environmental outcomes. The handbook covers various aspects of impact investing, including impact measurement, due diligence, portfolio management, and stakeholder engagement.

Use this resource for the following Actions of Impact Management:

• Implement: Execute the strategies outlined in the handbook to integrate impact considerations into investment processes and decision-making. This involves incorporating impact metrics and assessment methodologies into investment analysis, due diligence and portfolio management practices.

The Methodology for Comparing and Assessing Impact provides an analytical framework to compare impact performance, with a specific focus on variance and the extent of the change required to enable meaningful contribution toward impact.

Use this resource for the following Actions of Impact Management:

• Monitor, learn and adapt: Determine to what extent an investment contributes meaningfully to social or environmental progress.

Guidance on constructing due diligence questions based on the investor’s impact goals.

Use this resource to:

• Implement: Integrate impact measurement and management into the due diligence process to aid in assessing and managing impact risk.

The Investment Classification is a framework for investors to classify the types of impact occuring in their portfolios. It uses “impact classes” to classify an investment – or portfolio of investments – based on the impact of underlying assets (A, B or C) and the investor’s own contribution.

Use this resource for the following Actions of Impact Management:

• Implement: Connect high-level intentions – which are what most enterprises and investors start with – to the more granular dimensions of impact and data categories, as a way to help to measure and manage impact.

Tool to report on responsible investment activities annually.

This resource calls upon organisations to:

• Communicate: Report on firm-wide and portfolio or strategy-specific investment practices.

The CFO Principles on Integrated SDG Investments and Finance guide companies in aligning their sustainability commitments with credible corporate finance strategies geared towards contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Use this resource for the following Actions of Impact Management:

• Implement: Integrate impact management and SDG contribution into the organisation’s corporate finance function.

The SDG Impact Standards for Private Equity Funds provide a decision-making framework for integrating the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into one or more funds.

This is a cross-cutting resource, meaning that it supports the internal impact management process as a whole, rather than one or a few of the Actions of Impact Management.

The SDG Impact Standards for Bond Issuers are practice standards that provide a common language and a system for integrating sustainable development issues, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and impact management practices into business and investment decision-making.

Use this resource for the following Actions of Impact Management:

• Implement: The standards are designed to transform how enterprises and investors think about value creation, and integrate impact management and contributing positively to the SDGs.