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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