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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

Elizabeth Clark

Programme Manager

 
 

Trisha Mani

Senior Project Manager

 
 
 

What our members say about the ILG


"Very much looking forward to being Senior Sponsor Co-Chair for the Investment Leaders Group within the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership together with Nicolas Faller. In the quest for long term sustainable investment impact the co-operation between academia and financial industry is much needed - and the Investment Leaders Group is a valuable enabler."

Peter Kolthof, Chief Investment Officer, PGB Pensioendiensten

 

"I'm extremely proud to be Senior Sponsor Co-Chair of the Investment Leaders Group with Peter Kolthof at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. This unique collaboration between academia and the financial industry promotes responsible investment practices by fostering the insights and long-term thinking needed to build a more sustainable future."

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

 

Research & Insights


Read more at: Working paper finds that better disclosures are needed to assess long-term orientation of investment funds
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Working paper finds that better disclosures are needed to assess long-term orientation of investment funds

19 March 2019

20 March 2019 – The Investment Leaders Group found that the data necessary to enable institutional and retail investors to assess the long-term orientation of the investment funds is not currently available.


Read more at: Applying the Long View to Investment Funds: Introducing the Long-term Disclosure Framework

Applying the Long View to Investment Funds: Introducing the Long-term Disclosure Framework

March 2019 – The Investment Leaders Group (ILG) has developed an original framework that can be used by institutional and retail investors, and by their advisors, to assess the long-term orientation of the investment funds that they are being offered.


Read more at: In search of impact - Measuring the full value of capital: Update: The Sustainable Investment Framework

In search of impact - Measuring the full value of capital: Update: The Sustainable Investment Framework

January 2019 – Supporting progress against SDGs has become one of the main objectives of the sustainable finance industry. However, measurement of this progress at fund level from both institutional and retail investors is still only developing. Although many challenges remain to be solved, the Investment Leaders Group, convened by the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) has designed a set of six open-source metrics which investors can use as proxies for their progress towards the SDGs.


Read more at: The Prince of Wales attends forum of global investment leaders, highlighting the importance of responsible investment
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The Prince of Wales attends forum of global investment leaders, highlighting the importance of responsible investment

16 May 2016

17 May 2016 – The Prince of Wales, Patron of the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, today attended a reception and plenary meeting for a global network of investment managers and asset owners known as the Investment Leaders Group.


Read more at: Investment Leaders Group Forum
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Investment Leaders Group Forum

The Investment Leaders Group Forum on 17 May 2016 aimed to explore the tangible, practical steps and commitments that investors can make to achieve a more responsible, sustainable and, ultimately, resilient financial system.


Read more at: Unhedgeable risk: How climate change sentiment impacts investment

Unhedgeable risk: How climate change sentiment impacts investment

November 2015 – This report analyses how shifts in market sentiment induced by awareness of future climate risks could impact global financial markets in the short term.


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.