Intro

​In the ‘European agenda for adult learning’ the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth acknowledges lifelong learning and skills development as key elements in response to the current economic crisis, to demographic ageing and to the broader economic and social strategy of the European Union. Furthermore, social ventures are increasingly seen as an important way of solving these social and environmental challenges of our age.

According to NESTA, the world of social/ impact investing has developed to finance and support these ventures, taking them to scale when they have a proven and measurable social impact and revenue model, but to fill this gap ‘social venture incubation’ has grown as a set of techniques to help founders develop ventures that are investable propositions. However, with the growing number of challenges our society faces, superior models at an early stage will be needed.
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About i2 SustainIT

The i2 SustainIT aims at nurturing sustainability by embracing impact and change at a very early stage of identifying challenges and providing solutions. ​The focus of the project is on long-lasting positive effect through educating and upskilling mentors and investors to better support social entrepreneurs by various innovative tools for this market.

​All the resources created during the project duration will contribute to economic growth, reducing the negative impact on the environment and will foster the development of people, communities and cultures to achieve reasonable quality of life, healthcare and education across the globe.

In our “i2 SustainIT Impact Newsletter 1” we have presented information about the target groups of the project as well as information about our outputs.
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2020 in Review

2020 has been one of the rarest years in our history.

Despite all this, the i2 SustainIT consortium has been able to overcome and move the project forward. Our face-to-face meetings have been replaced by online meetings. We have certainly been fortunate that the i2 SustainIT project is the continuation of our previous project called BASET. This has meant that most of the partners already knew each other, thus facilitating the work dynamics and favoring the creation of synergies in the online meetings.

Look how happy we are in the pictures! 😁

The project is in progress and we're delighted to present our first output. We also have a collection of existing impact measurement frameworks for YOU, keep reading...


​Existing Impact Measurement Frameworks

There are a wide range of measurement tools and approaches used within impact investment, and these are used by both investees and investors, as well as third party certifiers (e.g. for ecolabel certification). Research has found that investors tend to use a number of techniques that are suited to their specific needs. Read more...


​Output 1 - Impact Measurement Guidelines

The Impact Measurement Guidelines is a guide which includes the best frameworks to measure impact, an explanation on why it is important to measure impact, a compilation of impact measurement tools and also an introduction on how investors choose the right impact measurement model for them.

The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) defines impact investments as investments made with the intention to generate positive, measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return. Impact investments can be made in both emerging and developed markets, and target a range of returns, depending on the investors' strategic goals.

Measurement of impact is central to impact investment. As the G8’s Social Impact Investment Taskforce put it: “The better we get at measuring impact, the more money will flow into impact investment”.

Impact measurement can be defined as the activities taken to evaluate and report on the financial and social change generated by an investment. Impact measurement is one of the defining characteristics of impact investing, as it demonstrates the commitment of investors to the social and environmental progress of their investments. It also allows them to feed the knowledge gained back into the business to fuel data-driven decision-making. Success as defined in a traditional business can be easily gauged using established and readily understood financial measures. In comparison, the impact performance is more difficult to identify, quantify and measure.

A hallmark of impact investing is the commitment of the investor to measure and report the social and environmental performance and progress of underlying investments, ensuring transparency and accountability while informing the practice of impact investing and building the field. The Investors’ approaches to impact measurement will vary based on their objectives and capacities, and the choice of what to measure usually reflects investor goals and, consequently, investor intention. In general, the components of impact measurement best practices for impact investing include the following:
  • Establishing and stating social and environmental objectives to relevant stakeholders
  • Setting performance metrics and targets related to these objectives, using standardized metrics wherever possible
  • Monitoring and managing the performance of investees against these targets
  • Reporting on social and environmental performance to relevant stakeholders
📢  Stay tuned if you want to know more about our Output 1!


​Basics to Understand the World of Impact Investing

We see how in recent years the world of impact investing continues to grow more and more people say it is the future that comes to save the present! Everyday, there are more and more courses and trainings around the subject, it is talked about in the DAVOS forum and in all kinds of notable publications in the economic space. But in reality, it is sometimes difficult to understand what impact investing is. 

Impact investing seems like a very open concept and in order to facilitate a better understanding of the concept itself, we would like to introduce you a selection of keywords. Therefore, because we want to help you make an impact, we have prepared a glossary that will help you and ease the way to create a better tomorrow. Read more...


​2021 Plan - What's next?

Stay tuned for our latest outputs that will be coming out to you very soon.
Between now and the end of September we have a lot in store for you, if you blink you'll miss out! 😉

What to expect?
  • Design Thinking for Impact Incubation Toolkit (DTi2 Toolkit)
  • ​Impact Investment & Sustainability Handbook (i2 Sustain Handbook)
  • Digital Impact Incubator Platform (Di2 Platform)

So that you do not miss anything about the progress of our project we advise you to subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on our networks:
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The Impact Incubator for Nurturing Sustainability /i2 SustainIT/ Project No. 2019-1-UK01-KA204-061873 has been co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. 
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This website reflects the views only of the author, and the European Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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