THE IMPACT FORUM SPONSORSHIPS How investors mobilize the long-term structural and cyclical growth expected as systems change across the value chain to meet impact objectives.

• New investment products need to screen for investments based on sustainability objectives and metrics.  This needs to be conducted based on a common accounting standard that translates to a line item on the balance sheet in order to provide consistency, auditability, and transparency to stakeholders. 

• Creating a level playing field for sustainable investment and sustainable development 
• Ensure industry commitment to sustainability through long-term planning for equitable and tangible outcomes
• Ability to measure, disclose, and report on the impact of sustainability on profits.  

• As financial book-keeping and ledgers set the groundwork for modern financial accounting and forecasting, integration of sustainability to accounting systems could serve as basis for quantitative sustainability reporting and disclosure - in form of risk ledgers and consolidated statements of risk and impact positions.

From the sidelines of 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26):

"Sustainability needs to be integrated into accounting and reporting systems.  The standardization that has already taken place in financial accounting offers a blueprint for success. 

• In the past, accounting faced myriad metrics, jurisdictions and organizations, and coordination took decades. The global accounting rules in place today ensure that company performance in any industry or country is comparable and companies can be held to account by investors."

It is key to provide a clear set of accounting principles to establish the baseline quantification for impact investing. 

• In order to achieve a measurable social or environmental benefit impact investing needs to achieve its purpose that leads to profits and not the other way around. 
• The fund and capital structure needs to be able to measure impact and provide evidence to its contribution to financial performance of deployed capital.
• Disclosure, reporting, and audit  standards need to be aligned with financial accounting and reporting standards.