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Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL)

Investment Leaders Group

 

The Investment Leaders Group (ILG) is a global network of pension funds, insurers and asset managers, with over $9 trillion under management and advice. The group is committed in its mission to advance the practice of responsible investment.

The ILG is a voluntary initiative, driven by its members, facilitated by the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), and supported by academics in the University of Cambridge.

Decisions and positions of the group do not represent the policies or positions of CISL or of the wider University of Cambridge.

 

Vision


The ILG´s vision is an investment chain in which economic, social and environmental sustainability are delivered as an outcome of the investment process as investors go about generating robust, long-term returns. Read more about the Value of Responsible Investment here.

 

ILG objectives and outcomes


Our projects...

Are leading edge and innovation focused

Connect to change in the real economy

Leverage a unique pre-competitive environment

Helping to ...

Decarbonise the global economy

Protect and restore nature

Support inclusive and resilient societies

By ensuring that..

Capital acts for the long term

Capital is priced according to the true cost of business activities

Financial structures better serve sustainable business

Our activities drive impact by


  • Providing unique access to world-class University of Cambridge research and academic excellence
  • Internal capacity building and knowledge generation as projects are developed and adopted within member organisations
  • Designing tools and services that provide commercial benefit for members and enhance best practice across the market
  • Two-way dialogue and network engagement with CISL’s sustainable finance, corporate and policy communities

 

Areas of focus


Measuring sustainable investment impacts

The Sustainable Investment Framework offers a set of impact metrics that translate the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into measurable indicators that can be calculable, easily understood and implementable by members.

Promoting long-termism

The ILG has developed a toolkit for investors aiming to design investment mandates to help shift the investment chain towards responsible, long-term value creation.  Central to the toolkit is a checklist which allows asset owners and retail clients to assess a fund's long-term orientation and enables asset managers to review their own performance.

Understanding consumer preferences and behaviours

The ILG, together with Cambridge academics from the Department of Psychology developed a Virtual Investment Experiment (VIE), to test investor preferences as to how they trade off financial performance against impact.

Risk and resilience

Our research in this area aims to empower investors to understand how shifts in market sentiment induced by awareness of how present and future environmental risks could affect global financial markets in the short term.

 

Meet the team


Dr Nina Seega

Director, Centre for Sustainable Finance

 

 

 

 

Elliot Cyriax

Head of Investment Leaders Group

 

 

 

 

Trisha Mani

Senior Project Manager

 

 

 

 

 

What our members say about the ILG


"I’m honoured to be appointed Senior Sponsor Co-Chair of the Investment Leaders Group (ILG) and to work alongside Nicolas Faller and the ILG community. I look forward to advancing ILG’s mission to strengthen sustainable investment practices and accelerate real-economy transition through collaboration, insight, and long-term leadership."

Brian Kernohan, Chief Sustainability Officer at Manulife Wealth & Asset Management

 

"It is a great privilege to continue to Co-Chair Investment Leaders group together with Brian J Kernohan. He brings an extremely solid background in sustainable investment and his vision will help our community to better address the challenges we are facing. The investors are more than ever questioning themselves how to deal with complex sustainability goals and we aim to help them with solutions and thought leadership."

Nicolas Faller, Executive Managing Director and Co-CEO of Asset Management at UBP

 

"The ILG provides UBP with a valuable conduit of strong academic research covering broad areas within sustainability originating from a well-resourced, impressively connected institution in CISL, that has specialised in this important area for over 30 years. Much of what we learn from this body would be difficult to replicate from other sources. Furthermore, the opportunity to share approaches to sustainability within a forum of asset owners and investment managers shapes and enhances UBP’s own efforts and through collaboration, magnifies the impact we could hope to achieve alone."

Victoria Leggett, Head of Impact Investing, Union Bancaire Privée

 

“Delighted to co-chair the CISL Investment Leaders Group with Victoria Leggett and support the critical work of the ILG, particularly broader dialogue as a result of research-based outcomes within the investment eco-system.” 

Sudip Hazra, Director, First Sentier Group

 

 

Research & Insights


Read more at: The Value of Responsible Investment: The moral, financial and economic case for action

The Value of Responsible Investment: The moral, financial and economic case for action

May 2014 – Investors are uniquely placed to support economic activity that enhances the environment, sustains livelihoods and contributes to economic stability. And with thousands of signatories to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment, support for these values has never been stronger. The imperative now is to convert ambition into effective investment practice.