The Impact World this Week: 18 April 2024
Your quick guide to the most interesting news snippets about social enterprise, impact investment and mission-driven business around the world from the Pioneers Post team. This week: Nature becomes a recording artist, Impact Europe lobbies for all EU public funds to be impactful, and more.
Our key news stories
Plus: other stories that caught our eye
Global: Nature is now an official recording artist, with tracks featuring Nature (described as ‘the world’s most natural talent’) appearing on Spotify, YouTube and other platforms. A portion of the royalties will be given to high-impact conservation initiatives, promises the Museum for the United Nations which launched the Sounds Right initiative today. Also collaborating with nature on the ‘featuring Nature’ playlist are Ellie Goulding, Los Amigos Invisibles, David Bowie and Brian Eno. It is predicted that the initiative will generate more than $40m for conservation in its first four years, with royalties and donations collected by UK and US registered charity EarthPercent.
- Explore how nature is becoming legally recognised in different ways in Tree-huggers, board advisers, contract shapers: The lawyers leading the way for nature
Global: Nearly 300 social innovators in over 50 countries apply AI across sectors including healthcare and environment, according to a World Economic Forum white paper. AI for Impact: The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Social Innovation, published this week, says generative AI could add between $182bn and $308bn in value annually to the impact sector.
Europe: The EU should ensure that all its deployed public money is intentionally impactful, according to the Investing for Impact Manifesto, published this week ahead of the EU elections in June 2024. It was drawn up by a coalition of impact investing networks including Impact Europe and is calling on MEPs, political parties and EU decision-makers to put impact at the centre of EU policies.
Global: Onboarding Nature, an online platform that provides companies with the tools and legal framework to bring nature into their governance, was launched on 10 April by B Lab Benelux in collaboration with Earth Law Center and Nyenrode Business University in The Netherlands. Businesses that use the platform to become more nature-inclusive would be following in the footsteps of companies such as Tony’s Chocolonely, Willicroft, and outdoor clothing retailer Patagonia which includes nature as its sole shareholder. Read about how Patagonia’s billionaire founder, Yvon Chouinard, made the radical decision to hand over ownership of the business to planet Earth.
Global: Version 1 of the Impact Performance Reporting Norms, a series of publications that aim to establish shared expectations for impact performance reporting by private asset managers, went live on 15 April. The publications are the result of an 18-month public consultation facilitated by Impact Frontiers and supported by The Rockefeller Foundation, which was held through written letters, interactive webinars and in-person workshops around the world. More than 350 impact fund managers, asset owners and allocators, assurance and verification providers, and civil society organisations provided feedback on how to address the limitations of pre-existing impact standards and frameworks used by investors.
Figure of the week: £5bn of health-focused impact investing capital is the amount that Tideline and Multiplier Advisors are aiming to unlock over five years through their new strategic partnership announced on 10 April. The impact consultancies will work together to support impact investors, including healthcare organisations, insurers and foundations that are working to address health disparities influenced by socioeconomic inequality. It is estimated that the planned $5bn capital would roughly triple the size of known impact investing commitments by healthcare organisations and activate more capital from foundations and insurers.
