New agriculture impact performance benchmark launched by GIIN in collaboration with investors

The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) launched its latest impact performance benchmark, focused on the agriculture sector. Developed in the GIIN Impact Lab and available through the GIIN’s IRIS+ system, the pilot benchmark is the result of a collaborative effort between the GIIN and 16 leading impact investors in agriculture.The announcement today represents a key milestone in the GIIN’s ongoing work to facilitate the growth and sophistication of impact investing by building robust impact intelligence tools and resources.Similar to the first impact performance benchmark on financial services, the agriculture benchmark allows investors to compare their own impact investment performance to peer groups and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The agriculture benchmark gives investors the ability to explore their performance across key performance indicators (KPIs) built using the IRIS+ system’s Core Metrics Sets. Certain KPIs, such as the change in farmer income, include outcomes-oriented data that offer insight into impact performance in a meaningful way.

“For investors, benchmarking impact performance against their peers, prior periods, or the scale of the social and environmental challenge represents a seismic shift in their toolkit. By doing so, they gain a better understanding of their own performance and are better equipped to manage it effectively,”

-Dean Hand, Chief Research Officer at the GIIN

“For investors, benchmarking impact performance against their peers, prior periods, or the scale of the social and environmental challenge represents a seismic shift in their toolkit. By doing so, they gain a better understanding of their own performance and are better equipped to manage it effectively,” says Dean Hand, Chief Research Officer at the GIIN. “Through benchmarking, investors can quickly identify what strong performance looks like and direct their capital towards more effective solutions.”Investors who wish to access the pilot impact performance benchmarks, including the agriculture benchmark, can do so by logging into the IRIS+ system. To receive access to tailored analytics, which allow individual investors to compare their own performance to the industry, investors must submit their data on the IRIS+ system. To date, the agriculture benchmark includes nearly 1,200 annualized investments.“I am excited about our ongoing collaborations with leading impact investors to develop innovative impact performance tools with high utility for investors’ decision-making,” said Hand. aboutThe Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) is the global champion of impact investing, dedicated to increasing the scale and effectiveness of impact investing around the world. Impact investments are investments made into companies, organizations, and funds 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 from below market to market rate, depending upon investors’ objectives. The GIIN builds critical infrastructure and supports activities, education, and research that help accelerate the development of a coherent impact investing industry. For more information, please visit www.thegiin.org. All opinions expressed are those of the author and/or quoted sources. investESG.eu is an independent and neutral platform dedicated to generating debate around ESG investing topics.