NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

On February 8th, 2018, The Investment Integration Project (TIIP) and Morningstar will co-host an event that explores the ways in which investors can now go beyond ESG and impact measurement and reporting at the portfolio level to capture and communicate their progress at a system-level. The event will take place at Morningstar’s headquarters at 22 W Washington St, Chicago, IL 60602, and will begin at 8:30am (registration opens at 8:00am) and will conclude by noon that day. A detailed agenda is included below. The discussion on February 8th will build on TIIP’s previously published Tipping Points 2016: Summary of 50 Asset Owners’ and Managers’ Approaches to Investing in Global Systems and will serve to launch its forthcoming publication with the IRRC Institute on the Roadmap to Measuring the Effectiveness of System-Level Investments,written by William Burckart, Steve Lydenberg, and Jessica Ziegler of TIIP.

Over the past few decades investors have been setting goals around measuring and reporting on the impact of their investments on the environment and society. There is still work to be done, for sure, but their thinking on such impacts is well-developed, as are various related measurement approaches and metrics. Many investors also care about how the health and stability of the environment and society impact them and, in turn, what they can do to help ensure that there are contributing positively to that health and stability.

Some have started to think about measuring their broader systems-level impact, but comprehensive and systematic progress on this front overall is lacking. Enter the UN SDGs. The SDGs provide investors with a set of goals related to systems’ health and stability, discrete targets within those goals, and indicators for measuring progress toward the targets and goals. While many investors have “aligned” themselves with the SDGs, few know how to use the associated indicators to measure their individual contribution to achieving the targets and goals.

TIIP’s new report examines how investors can translate their experience and know-how with measuring the impact of their portfolios on the environment and society into a framework for measuring their impact and influence on the environmental, societal, and financial systems that are the ultimate source of this wealth creation. The event will also examine implications for reporting.

Panels will explore why asset owners are increasingly demanding the measurement and reporting of ESG factors and are extending this interest to systems-level considerations. We will also unpack key findings of TIIP’s new report, and discuss the challenges and opportunities that asset managers face when attempting to measure the impact and influence of their portfolio decision-making on system-level considerations.