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Private equity firm TPG recently announced it had raised $7.3 billion for its climate-focused impact fund, one of several such funds it has launched since 2016, making it "one of the biggest private equity firms to offer an alternative to pure profit-seeking," per the Financial Times.
But critics aren't so sure impact investing, which seeks to do good while generating a profit, is all it's cracked up to be.
The World Bank's International Finance Corporation has called on asset managers to disclose how they define and measure the social or environmental impact they claim to produce alongside financial returns, and the European Securities and Markets Authority has proposed that funds using "impact" in their names must make clear how they generate a positive and measurable social or environmental impact alongside a financial return.
"The returns on renewable energy projects are pretty low these days, partly because they are very low risk," a Columbia Business School professor tells Bloomberg.
"Some of these sectors, like renewable energy, have become so successful that it becomes challenging to get those returns," he adds.
" private equity firms offering impact investments must now address concerns about greenwashing, too.
The Securities and Markets Stakeholder Group, a body that advises Esma, said in January that firms offering impact funds should 'only Read the Entire Article
Selected Grant News Headlines
A customized collection of grant news from foundations and the federal government from around the Web.
Foundation: Gates Foundation
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Nigeria has become the 16th country to sign an agreement with the Fund for Export Development in Africa, a multilateral bank that aims to boost African exports. The bank's president, Benedict...more
It's that time of year again: time for investors to look back at the last presidential election and see if there's any correlation between it and the performance of the stock market. A Bloomberg...more
Kinara Capital, an Indian startup that offers short-term, unsecured loans to small and medium businesses, has just received $24.4 million in debt funding, the Times of India reports. The funding...more
The Italian government has put the kibosh on a plan to build ground-mounted photovoltaic systems on agricultural land, Bloomberg reports. According to a draft of a new agriculture law, "the areas...more
Foundation: Kellogg Foundation
For more than 30 years,Henrie Treadwell has been fighting for racial equity at the University of South Carolina, where she became the school's first black graduate since Reconstruction, the...more
When it comes to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues, many investors are looking to invest in companies that have a positive social or environmental impact. But when it comes to...more
"To differentiate and compete, you really have to pay attention to technology," says Chat Reynders, CEO of Reynders, McVeigh Capital Management. "It was becoming clear to me that our tech wasn't...more
"Take a jigsaw puzzle of our planet, an amazing planet, and you'll have amazing pieces to fit there. Rivers, oceans, land, people, 8 million species, and they all exist in perfect harmony," says...more
Social Entrepreneurship
Spotlight
Influencing Social Good Through Retail
When Hannah Davis traveled to China to teach English, she noticed how Chinese workers and farmers were often sporting olive green army-style shoes. Those shoes served as her inspiration to create her own social enterprise, Bangs Shoes.
