Dear Friends of IFB,
As we opened the month of May with full day tribute to workers’ rights, we ended the month with the formal approval of the CSDDD by European Parliament, requiring companies to identify and address adverse human rights and environmental impacts of their actions inside and outside Europe.
During the past month, many organizations presented and discussed sustainability issues. IFB was part of a Flemish brainstorm day, PensioPlus presentations, Social Innovators meeting in Brussels, an international event with “progressive decision-makers committed to building the regenerative economy” and a presentation by DPAM and Incofin sharing their increased collaboration. Most telling was the chair of a Dutch pension fund who expressed “Sustainability is here to stay. Let’s embrace it, even if it is full of uncertainties.” They set aside 1% of their sizeable assets, purely for impact.
IFB has several working groups in full swing, discussing exactly these topics that will allow participants to learn from each other, to share questions and jointly identify what steps are required to achieve more and better impact. In parallel, a legal team from Freshfields is helping us analyze which foreign examples may be adapted for the Belgian setting. Next month, we hope to share some first results.
On 14 May, we saw many of you at the first AGM of IFB and following annual drinks in our sunny garden. Two IFB members shared their approach to impact, with lessons about the market and the need for internal training. Impact is more than a business case as we learned that at personal level: “the more you give, the more you receive”.
As Europe will soon go to the polls, we can only encourage all of you to vote. For those in or close to Brussels: we have a unique collection of parliaments in this city alone, which can all be visited, even online. Also online are the next IFB events, online and in person.
We remain open to your inputs, your questions and ideas.
Enjoy reading,
Frederik and the team of IFB
IFB Inspires💡
On Tuesday, 14 May, IFB organized the first Annual General Meeting.
At the AGM we formally onboarded two Board Members – Aline Buysschaert and Audrey Hanard.
IFB also released the 2023 Annual Report now also available on our website.
Following the AGM, we invited our members to join the Annual Drinks at Impact House’s beautiful new garden. We are grateful to Peter De Coensel (DPAM) along with Patrick Somerhausen and Nicolas Crochet (Funds for Good) for their inspirational speeches.
On 23 May 2024, IFB, Impact Europe, GSG Impact, GAIL and other European GSG National Partners, released a joint statement as a response to European Commission’s SFDR Consultation Summary Report.
IFB started the third working group on Beyond 10. We welcomed a mix of experts from Triodos Bank, BNP Paribas Fortis, KOIS, BVA, Towards Sustainability, and ULB. Together with these expert, IFB aims to clarify the definitions of ‘responsible investing’, ‘sustainable investing’ and ‘impact investing’ crucial to explore the market potential after reaching the first 10% AUM.
In the third webinar in the IMM series, IFB along with Sophie Paquot, discussed the different methods to measure impact. This includes the qualitative, quantitative and valuation methods for your IMM practices.
On 14 May 2024, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) released the final report on the guidelines for fund names using ESG or sustainability-related terms. It aims to ensure that ESG fund names match their sustainability credentials and that investors are protected against greenwashing.
Key points:
⚬ Minimum Investment threshold and qualifying criteria for different categories between “environmental”, “sustainability”, “impact”, “transition”, “social” and “governance”-related terms.
⚬ Funds with impact-related terms should:
💠 Meet an 80% investment threshold for environmental or social characteristics or sustainable investment objectives following the binding elements of the investment strategy.
💠Apply the Paris-aligned Benchmark (PAB) exclusions.
💠 Ensure that investments are made to generate a positive, measurable social or environmental impact alongside a financial return.
Introducing IFB’s newest Board Member, Audrey Hanard. As a young leader, she has worn and is wearing many hats amongst others as Associate Partner at Dalberg Global Advisors, Chair of the Board of Directors of B-post and as Director at Proximus Group. More about her in this Point of View:
“If we want impact finance to flourish and achieve its goals,we need to actively dismantle the superficial dichotomy between “giving” and “investing.”
Instead, we should view these as a spectrum of activities across a nuanced continuum. This approach ensures that each impact project deserving of scale can find the right mix of funding to help solve our world’s challenges.”
Audrey Hanard, Board Member IFB and Partner at Dalberg.
Concluding the IMM Webinar
To end the IMM webinar series, we are closing it with ‘Challenges Regarding Impact Measurement’. Joining us is Hugues PIrotte, a professor at ULB, Solvay. The webinar is scheduled for Tuesday, 25 June during lunchtime.
Filling a gap in resources available to foundations, these unique tools bring together key elements that guide foundations in elevating the impact of their assets, both in their internal decision-making processes and in their external interactions. They were produced by the Foundation for Future Generations, initiator and chair of the working group, with the support of the Federation of Foundations.
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