How do European market operators define impact investing? Can they align on how to distinguish sustainable and impact investing? These were the fundamental questions that a group of European market builders in the field of impact investing tried to address collectively, knowing that common jargon and definitions are a necessary condition to provide clear figures and fuel the growth of impact investing.
Harmonised data, methodologies and definitions are needed to establish an aligned, credible and recognised baseline across the European impact investing sector. It is only through this alignment that overall progress can be effectively measured.
In 2022, together with GSG Impact, the European GSG National Partners from Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and the UK, and selected academic partners like ESADE and Politecnico di Milano, and FAIR, we published the first-of-its-kind report, Accelerating Impact, solidifying our commitment to overcoming data challenges and standardising impact investing practices in Europe. Yet, our work did not stop there.
This position paper does not only reflect the perspective of European market building organisations at national and regional level, but also builds on most widely acknowledged standards and definitions at global level, such as those developed by the Impact Management Project (IMP, now hosted by Impact Frontiers) and the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN).
