Are your investments damaging the world?

Inequality, public health and the environment may keep you awake at night but do your investments and pensions support your values? Could investment managers be supporting companies that damage the world with your money?

There is increasing evidence that more investors are demanding a more responsible approach. Earlier this year, the findings from a survey from global wealth manager Schroders, found that investors across generations are calling for more socially and environmentally conscious investment choices.

It’s not just about wanting to avoid companies in taboo sectors, such as tobacco and alcohol. Investors today want their pension funds and wealth managers to be actively searching for businesses that are changing the world for the better.  

The Student Impact Investment Fund

This is why, with the support of the School’s lively and popular Social Impact Club, Josh Bell MBA2019 founded our first Student Impact Investment Fund (SIIF). The fund was set up last year to invest in social enterprise start-ups.

The aim is that eventually it will be profitable and that all financial returns will be reinvested into more social enterprises, businesses that aim to apply commercial strategies to address social and environmental challenges and improve the wellbeing of people and communities.

The SIIF is thought to be the first impact fund set up at a graduate business programme in the UK and was largely borne out of Bell’s desire for more experiential learning opportunities - giving them that practical out-of-the-classroom application of their learning that employers are increasingly looking for.

Milestone

The fledging fund has recently reached a key milestone. Its founder, having graduated, has handed the reins to the next generation of London Business School (LBS) investors.  

Giulia Poletti de Chaurand and MBA2020 classmate Amanda Barros Ambrogini are now tasked with taking the fund to the next level.

“Working in an impact fund management really gives me satisfaction,” de Chaurand says. “It is a reason to work late at night and it has become something I do because I enjoy it, not something I have to do.”