Jan 9, 2023
In our seventh episode, we discuss impact investing in public markets with Krisztina Tora and Eric Rice. Krisztina is Chief Market Development Officer at GSG, the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment. Eric is head of Active Equities Impact Investing at Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager. In our conversation, we discuss what makes impact investing through the stock market different from investing in private equity or other asset classes. We talk about what it takes to democratize impact investing and the role of shareholder engagement to achieve impact. Eric shares Blackrock’s strategy to build a universe of potential impact companies and explains how his team selects investees out of this universe. Krisztina walks us through the different standards for impact measurement. Our conversation also touches upon the role of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to mobilize capital. We discuss that investments geared toward SDGs can achieve returns.
Links
Timestamps
On some podcast players, you should be able to jump to the section by clicking:
(01:51) – Krisztina and Eric introduce themselves
(07:44) - The continuum of capital
(10:55) – Market rate returns or concessionary returns?
(11:58) – Distinguishing impact investing from ESG
(12:55) - Democratizing impact investing through public markets
(16:45) - Added value of the investor to achieve impact (additionality)
(24:21) - Blackrock’s approach to build an universe of investible of impact companies
(28:03) - GSG’S SDG Investor Opportunity maps in cooperation with the UN
(33:38) - Shareholder engagement
(38:50) - Best in progress vs. best in class
(46:02) - The harmonization of standards related to impact investing
(51:05) - The move towards auditing in impact measurement
(52:31) - The rationale for long-term investing
(01:00:48) - Social justice, diversity and inclusion
Contact
For feedback on the show, or to suggest guests for future episodes, contact us at scifi@esmt.org