Dear NAB friends,

Welcome to the latest edition of our newsletter!

At the time of writing this letter, I am delighted to read the letter of the NYC Pension Fund to Blackrock's CEO Larry Fink. Comptroller Brad Lander is reassessing their business relationships with BlackRock, among other asset managers, on concerns that it is straying from its "climate commitments". We applaud the courage of an institution to do what is right to ensure a good pension in a livable world to their participants.

Talking about courage, another recent humbling read by Dutch journalist Rutger Bregman: highlighting the necessity of having a high level of moral ambition to achieve change not only as an individual but also with our career, and to be on the right side of history. This resonates particularly well in the NAB community, with our trailblazing leaders who all have a combination of high values and ambition.

This fall, we will be getting back together -finally!- on many occasions and sharing many new initiatives. I wish you an inspiring read about our community's ambitions!

- Laure Wessemius-Chibrac, Managing Director

CAPITAL REQUIREMENTS

The working group on ‘Capital Requirements for institutional investors in Impact Investing’ has further advanced its research over the course of the summer. The policy analysis of the Solvency II directive and the New Pension agreement are close to completion. Furthermore, the group has received its first data for analysis. Considering the input of quantitative experts from the sector a model to analyze the risks of impact investments is currently being designed. Once the model and the subsequent results are finished the final the group will enter the final stage of composing the white paper for publication.

FIRST DUTCH PLATFORM TO RECEIVE NEW EUROPEAN CROWDFUNDING LICENCE

Congratulations to our founding member Lendahand! They are the first Dutch crowdfunding platform to receive the new European Crowdfunding Service Provider license from the AFM (and second in Europe).

With the new mandatory ECSP license, the European Commission aims to rework the crowdfunding system in the EU by increasing its availability and will no longer allow crowdfunding platforms to work with an exemption.

You can find out more about Dutch crowdfunding here and more about Lendahand's achievement here.

THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS REPORT 2022 - YEARS OF PROGRESS SET BACK

On July 7th, 2022, the latest edition of the SDGs Report by the UN was published, using the latest data and estimates to present a global overview of progress on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. An in-depth analysis of the global and regional progress of each of the 17 Goals is provided.

According to the Report, the advances in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development have been set back in a major way by the COVID-19 pandemic, the ever-growing climate crisis as well as the war in Ukraine, and other conflicts. This assemblage of crises negatively impacts various fields like education, health, food, and nutrition, etc., and it has repercussions on all SDGs.

You can read the full report (available in different languages) here.

GSG IMPACT SUMMIT SERIES PART 2 - BOOSTING CAPITAL FLOW IN EMERGING MARKETS

The second part of the Impact Summit Series took place on Thursday 22 September. With a vast variety of speakers representing the global impact community and attendees from every corner of the planet, Part 2 of the Series was filled with incredible insight and diversity. Over the course of the day, impact experts and practitioners showed how channeling private capital into innovative solutions and scaling up investments using existing instruments and blended finance initiatives can accelerate progress toward achieving the SDGs. You can find out more information about Part 2 as well as the last Part on the website of the Series.

GLOBAL REPORTING INITIATIVE AND THE UN GLOBAL COMPACT PLAN TO REFINE SDG REPORTING OF BUSINESSES

With the new update to the "Business Reporting on the SDGs: An Analysis of the Goals and Targets" report, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) together with the United Nations Global Compact aims to improve, refine and accelerate the reports of businesses on their progress on reaching the SDGs. With the publishing of the first edition in 2017, GRI and UN Global Compact gave start to the Action Platform for reporting on the SDGs initiative, and the latest edition of the report includes an inventory of possible disclosures per SDG, with a total of 169 targets based on 26 disclosure sources - all with the intent to drive action and ambition from businesses to achieve the SDGs.

TEAM NEWS

We welcome our new Impact Investing intern: Chris Leeuwis!

The NAB is also looking for a new Communication Intern. Do you know a Master's/Bachelor student in Communication and/or Marketing (in a Dutch or European university) looking to change the world? Please let us know. Click on the button below to see the vacancy.

INTERESTING PUBLICATIONS

Opinion: How the impact movement can help rebuild Ukraine and beyond

 In this short article, Cliff Prior analyzes how impact specialists of GSG and other organizations can help Ukraine and the world, amidst food, fuel, and fertilizer hitting record prices, surged inflation as well as the ongoing recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The CEO of the GSG argues that impact can aid in the areas that suffered the most like food, fuel and asylum for refugees.

Read the full article here.

Update to the IMP Platform website

Impact Management Platform has expanded the Platform website, which now caters to investors and financial institutions looking to manage their sustainability impacts. This is in addition to the existing guidance for organizations.

You can read and interact with the helpful visual guides on the Platform website.

A 35-minute lesson on Impact-Weighted Accounting

In this 35-minute lesson from Harvard Business School Professor George Serafeim and Sir Ronald Cohen, founding partner of Apax and the GSG, one can learn how impact-weighted accounting can help measure the positive and negative impacts organizations have on society and the environment.

Follow this free online course here.

2022 EVENTS AND PROGRAM

Geodata for Agriculture and Water Conference 2022

 Theme: Space for Food Security and Inclusive Finance

Date: 3rd-6th of October 2022

Location: Utrecht

GIIN Investor Forum

Date: 12th/13th of October

Location: The Hague

  An introduction exchange with CGAP new CEO

Theme: Meeting Sophie Sirtaine, CGAP new CEO 

Date: 4th of November 12:00-14:00

Location: ASN Impact Investors Office, The Hague

  NAB x VBDO Interactive Panel

Theme: What have we achieved half-way through the 2016 SDGI Pledge?

Date: 10th of November

Location: FMO Offices, The Hague

Registration to be opened shortly

ImpactFest 2022 

Date: 15th of November 11:00 - 19:30

Location: Fokker Terminal, The Hague

NAB Fall Members' Meeting

Theme: 2023 Action Agenda

Date: 15th of November 09:00 - 11:00

Location: The Hague

NAB members-only

NAB x EVPA x Impact for Breakfast: Latin America

Theme: Meeting a delegation of LatAm stakeholders

Date: 29th of November

Breakfast: 09:00 - 10:00

One-on-one meetings: 10:00 - 12:00

Location: NAB Offices, The Hague

Registration to be opened shortly

GSG Impact Summit Series PART 3: 

Theme: Townhall Hosted by Sir Ronald Cohen, GSG Chair

Date: 22nd of November

Online event

Want to become a member? For enquiries e-mail us at contact@nabimpactinvesting.nl. 

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