88,000 children vaccinated, around 140,000 MWh of green energy produced, over 12,000 tonnes of waste recycled. Over the past three years, the Investimenti Sostenibili fund has achieved these and other milestones.
The expression "sustainable finance" is becoming increasingly common, even outside specialist circles. After all, anyone committed to maintaining a responsible lifestyle cannot entirely overlook the question of savings: the choice of bank or fund to which one entrusts one's money has very real consequences.
Those who are not too well versed in financial jargon, however, may find themselves asking many questions. When you invest one thousand or five thousand euros in an SRI (socially responsible) financial product, is there a way to concretely verify what actually happened to that money? Is there a way to understand whether it truly had a positive impact on the world, and what kind?
The Investimenti Sostenibili fund by Sella Sgr, the first fund in Italy characterised by an impact investing policy, provides an answer through the impact report. This is a balance sheet that illustrates all the environmental and social results achieved through the investments made over the course of the year. This document, the first of its kind in Italy, has now reached its third edition, which was presented in Milan on 23 May and holds quite a few surprises.
The history of Sella Sgr's Investimenti Sostenibili fund begins in 1999 and initially, in keeping with the notions of responsible finance of the time, includes some donations in favour of charitable initiatives. In 2003 it begins integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into its investment decisions. In 2015 comes the major leap: it becomes the first impact investing fund in Italy, with MainStreet Partners as a partner for defining the investable universe. This means it aims to achieve both a financial return and a positive, concrete and measurable impact on society and the environment. In 2016, the same year the first impact report was published, one share class of the fund is listed on the Italian Stock Exchange, in partnership with LifeGate.
The Investimenti Sostenibili fund focuses its investments on eight impact themes: energy efficiency, access to finance, education, resource management, healthcare, food, renewable energy and sustainable construction. These in turn are linked to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the challenges set by the UN for 2030. During 2017, the main themes invested in were those related to protecting the planet: energy efficiency, renewable energy and resource management. "In the future, the objective is to progressively increase the allocation of resources to themes of a social nature," explains Nicola Trivelli, chief executive officer and general manager of Sella SGR.
Leafing through the pages of the report, some impressive figures come to light. On the environmental front, in 2017 alone 51,000 MWh of renewable energy were produced, avoiding the emission of over 27,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, and greenhouse gas emissions were reduced by nearly 50,000 tonnes. Thanks to efficient water resource management, 323,587 litres of water were saved, equivalent to the daily drinking water consumption of 1,500 people.
Turning to themes of a social nature, it emerges that over the course of the year nearly 15,000 children were vaccinated, primarily in developing countries (against tetanus, yellow fever, measles, polio, meningitis, pentavalent and pneumococcus). At the same time, 360 microloans and loans to small businesses were disbursed, and 16 jobs were created. For Goal 9 (innovation and infrastructure), nearly 4,000 people benefited from infrastructure projects carried out in various countries including Malaysia and Costa Rica.
"The report is the result of a constantly evolving process that drives us to improve our data collection and processing methodology year on year," explains Rodolfo Fracassi, director and co-founder of Mainstreet Partners. In short, a tool like the impact report is certainly not built overnight, but it is what makes it possible to move from the somewhat impersonal language of finance to the far more immediate and "human" language of sustainable development.
