When you have spent months, even years setting aside a little bit of your paycheck to build up your savings, there comes a point when you start thinking about where to invest. If not one of the obvious investments like a new car or house, the arguably natural strategy (within your own realms of risk taking) is to invest in what will bring you the highest return on investment. Simple. Though, let’s just clarify that the ‘highest return on investment’ strategy, is pretty much always implicit in its reference to highest financial return.
In our ever-changing world, the highest return on investment no longer needs to be defined solely as the highest financial return, but rather also its return in a sustainable development respect. Tangibly changing this definition is no easy feat, but Swiss company, Wimpact, has made their mission “to mobilise the private sector to accelerate the sustainability transition” with a vision of “a world where finance works for People and the Planet”.
Wimpact enables investors to identify sustainable investment portfolios in areas such as education, health, water and energy. They believe that public money alone will not do the job of acheiving a sustainable future and so capitalising on private money is essential to catalyse the work of those who work towards such a sustainable future.
Their platform makes it elegantly simple for potential investors to sign up and begin investing and such is their investment approach. They start by focusing on societial issues, identifying the companies working towards sustainble solutions for these issues and then financially analysing them, combining them with green bonds to build portfolios offering stability and performance.
It’s not often you hear about sustainability driven finance opportunties, with the two fields often acting more like oily water, but Wimpact are actively changing this by embodying SDG 8, Decent Work and Economic Growth, in particular target 8.4 stating there must be an “endeavour to decouple economic growth and environmental degradation”. The nature of Wimpact’s mission is challenging not only the status quo, but the one driver at the root of almost all action in the financial world – making more money; and making more money alone.
This is not to say that by investing in sustainable development you won’t make more money. It’s certainly not. In fact, it is quite the opposite with the sustainable sector growing faster than it ever has. Though, what is true, is that Wimpact are challenging the idea that investment portfolios need to be driven by financial gain alone – they give us the opportunity to also invest for change.
Admiration and gratitude for Wimpact – tackling the sustainability crisis on a different, yet all the more challenging front. Check them out to learn more about what they do and why they are exemplary in their progress for SDG 8, along with the exciting investment opportunities, exclusive to sustainable development.
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