The network led by JP Morgan and Natixis banks has published the final version of the document outlining guidelines for companies and sovereign funds on how to measure and assess the impact of their business/portfolio and alignment with the 2030 SDGs
A guide to aligning finance with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 2030). Designed for companies and sovereign entities, it aims to help them increase transparency in disclosing the 360-degree impact of their operations. The new compass for sustainable finance comes from the Impact Disclosure Taskforce, an initiative led by private sector actors and chaired by J.P. Morgan and Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking.
The Impact Disclosure Guidance is a voluntary tool that helps corporate and sovereign entities provide transparency about their efforts to reduce poverty and inequality in communities that still lack access to basic human needs. It also helps share information with institutional investors looking for investments that offer both financial and social returns.
Key points of the sustainable finance guide
The guide for measuring and assessing the impact of one’s business or portfolio in terms of sustainable finance is based on existing tools and involves five steps. The key aspects include:
- Company/Fund-level aspects, specific to the context: the guide evaluates the overall strategy of the entity in the countries of interest, measuring how the entity’s products, services, and operations should address the most acute development gaps in each country;
- Focus on impact: the guide concentrates on outputs and outcomes, including plans to achieve the outputs and the theory of change (the logical framework with assumptions about how to change the situation) believed to lead to these outcomes;
- Forward-looking approach: the guide sets goals that measure expected impacts and a commitment to monitor and report on progress toward those goals.
This is the final version of the guide, following the release of a draft version last April to gather stakeholder feedback. With this publication, the Impact Disclosure Taskforce invites investment banks and underwriters to promote the adoption of the guide among their corporate and national clients. It also addresses regulators, urging them to consider the guide’s interoperability with existing sustainable finance regulations and disclosure standards.
