Summary of the First Conference on Impact Investing
The following post summarizes the speeches that were presented and reflects the ideas that came up during the first conference on Impact Investing regarding the topic Impact Investing - What for?Conference on Impact Investing in Sao Paulo
On 5 December 2012, the HSG
Hub Office in Sao Paulo held the first of a series of conferences about Impact
Investing together with Insper and in partnership with the Sustainability
Committee of the Swiss-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce.
This first conference subject was Impact
Investing – What for? and aimed at bringing professionals of the field together
for sharing experiences, networking, and even for the identification of joint
pilot projects or match-making between entrepreneurs and investors.
In total 70 people attended the
conference, among them impact investing ventures, Alumni members, representatives
from different family offices’ CSR foundations, professors from different
institutions and the students in exchange.
Along the conference, there was a
balanced approach towards concept and practical cases. It also brought the
different perspectives of the key stakeholders involved in Impact Investing:
socio-environmental entrepreneurs, financial institutions and think-tanks.
The first presentation with the topic Impact
Investing – What for? was presented by Ernst von Kimakowitz and opened the discussion with some
conceptual, but fundamental thoughts on Impact Investing. The need for Impact
Investing consists mainly in the fact that today’s challenges cannot be solved
solely with publicly available funds. It will be necessary to tap in private
wealth to solve today’s challenges and Impact Investing might be one of the
answers. As stated by Ernst: the approach should be business as unusual,
and therefore the crucial importance of the entrepreneurial motivation.
The investors perspective – the case
of Credit Suisse, was presented by Heiko Specking who brought an overview on how the
institution understands where impact investing positions in relation to traditional
Philanthropy and Corporate Social Responsibility; as well as the sort of
advisory services available to their customers aiming at defining or reviewing
their strategies on how to positively contribute to current socio-environmental
issues.
Impact Investing for Education, was the first
of the two presented cases. In it, Prof. Sergio Lazzarini, from Insper, shared
a proposal based on the Social Impact Bond Model, taking the cases of ISMART (Social
Institute to Motivate, Support and Recognize Talents) and Instituto Embraer,
and with three possible scenarios. The main idea behind this project is to
tackle the educational issues of Brazil, by providing a consortium formed by
donators, investors, private schools and an evaluation center.
A business case of Biomass in Brazil, was the
second business case and aimed at showing initiatives and projects which
already bring a positive environmental impact by addressing sources of
renewable energy and agricultural waste destination. The case was introduced by
Ernesto Moeri, from Ecogeo, a Swiss-Brazilian entrepreneur and a reference when
it comes to environmental businesses and alternative energy in Brazil.
In the sequence, Angelica Rotondaro
and Fabian Oppenheimer, from the HSG Hub office, introduced and launched the
Impact Investing Research Platform. In it, students and researchers play a central
role by developing case studies, while at the same time writing their theses.
The insights and gained knowledge return to the platform, as a knowledge
center, and help to support future projects. There are four topics in impact
investing, focused by the platform: sustainable agriculture; renewable energy;
social housing and education. The platform operates through the development of
pilot projects and research; the organization of public conferences; training
modules; and publications.
In Innovative Models for
Traditional Businesses, Peter Probst, a HSG Alumnus, brought up insights of
how ‘old’ problems, like the high demand for housing, in Brazil, could and
should be approached by impact investors. He showed some examples of low-cost
construction technologies that have high productivity and scalability, and that
could be developed and implemented through the creation of a fund for
BOP-Housing.
The last and closing presentation
was held by Peter Sester, about the Regulatory Aspects in Impact Investing.
His remarks included that regulation shall not be seen exclusively as a
restriction, but also as a facilitator. While restrictive regulations can
contain requirements for admissions, facilitative restriction can contribute to
trust building or the comparability of products. Peter Sester also mentioned
the role of tax reduction as a compensation for the below the market impact
investing return rates.
At the end of conference,
attendants and lecturers were invited for a networking session.
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