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Bridges Fund Management

PRI reporting framework 2020

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Promoting responsible investment

SG 09. Collaborative organisations / initiatives

09.1. Select the collaborative organisation and/or initiatives of which your organisation is a member or in which it participated during the reporting year, and the role you played.

Select all that apply

Your organisation’s role in the initiative during the reporting period (see definitions)

Provide a brief commentary on the level of your organisation’s involvement in the initiative. [Optional]

Maggie Loo spoke at a couple of panels hosted / moderated by PRI which focused on the integration of the SDGs into an impact strategy.  Moreover, the PRI is a member of the Structured Network of the Impact Management Project, which has been facilitated by Bridges’ non-profit, field-building arm Bridges Insights.

Your organisation’s role in the initiative during the reporting period (see definitions)

Provide a brief commentary on the level of your organisation’s involvement in the initiative. [Optional]

We are a founding member of the BVCA's Impact Investment Advisory Group - one of our partners, Maggie Loo, is serving on the BVCA Impact Investment Advisory Group.
More in general, we have a strong and established relationship with the British Venture Capital/Private Equity Association.  Our team members are often invited to speak at BVCA events – for example, Michele Giddens gave a keynote at the most recent BVCA Summit in 2019, and Maggie Loo gave a keynote address at a BVCA Minorities Breakfast event in February 2020.

Your organisation’s role in the initiative during the reporting period (see definitions)

Provide a brief commentary on the level of your organisation’s involvement in the initiative. [Optional]

Bridges has collaborated with the GIIN in a pilot research study to assess the annualised impact performance of direct impact investments in housing. The report is titled: Evaluating Impact Performance: Housing Investments (link: https://thegiin.org/research/publication/evaluating-impact-performance)

As impact investors, we seek to improve access to safe, affordable and lower-cost housing, primarily by constructing these types of housing units and by regenerating and remediating underserved areas to provide low-cost housing to low-income individuals and families.

Jointly working on: Positioning frameworks, standards and measurement approaches that are useful for managing different expectations. We also work with the GIIN to link different impact expectations to different frameworks, sets of indicators and measurement and analysis approach through the Impact Management Project.

Your organisation’s role in the initiative during the reporting period (see definitions)

Provide a brief commentary on the level of your organisation’s involvement in the initiative. [Optional]

We have collaborated with the UNEP FI on their Positive Impact Investment in Real Estate Discussion Paper (link: https://www.unepfi.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Positive-Impact-Investment-Real-Estate_Discussion-Paper.pdf), Positive Impact Real Estate Investment Framework (link: https://www.unepfi.org/publications/positive-impact-real-estate-investment-framework-2/) and also submitting additional case studies following the publication.

We are actively following guidance and recommendations from UNEP FI, particularly regarding their property initiatives.

 
          UNDP

Your organisation’s role in the initiative during the reporting year (see definitions)

Provide a brief commentary on the level of your organisation’s involvement in the initiative. [Optional]

We are part of the Pilot Group of Practice Assurance Standards for Private Equity which have been developed by the UNDP. 

  • The SDG Impact Practice Assurance Standards for Private Equity Funds (the Standards) respond to market-identified needs and feedback from various groups engaged and interested in investment that has positive impact for people and the planet.
  • They form part of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) SDG Impact and specifically embed the notion of investment to enable achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). UNDP’s goal is to catalyze much-needed private capital and direct it towards the achievement of the SDGs and help connect impact driven activity with investment to significantly enhance progress toward development goals.
  • The Standards complement other SDG-enabling components of UNDP’s SDG Impact and other market enabling initiatives of the Impact Management Project (IMP).

More info on the website https://sdgimpact.undp.org/practice-standards.html

 
          B Lab / Global Impact Investment Rating System (GIIRS)

Your organisation’s role in the initiative during the reporting year (see definitions)

Provide a brief commentary on the level of your organisation’s involvement in the initiative. [Optional]

B Lab / Global Impact Investment Rating System (GIIRS)

  • We sit on the Standards Advisory Council, which meets regularly, and were actively involved in the launch of B Corp UK in September 2015 as a founding UK B Corporation, for which we wrote a report on B Corporations and what they mean for investors. We continue to support the growth of B Corp through the promotion of the tools and accreditation with our portfolio companies, three of our portfolio companies in the Sustainable Growth Funds are B Corps.
  • We have also recently published a blog post on why the B Corp framework is great for investors (not just for businesses) (https://medium.com/reinventing-business/four-reasons-why-the-b-corp-framework-is-great-for-investors-not-just-businesses-5c1fac0145ab) and we also joined the B Corp Climate Collective which is a group of Certified B Corporations working together to take action on the climate emergency
 
          EVPA
NGII

Your organisation’s role in the initiative during the reporting year (see definitions)

Provide a brief commentary on the level of your organisation’s involvement in the initiative. [Optional]

EVPA

  • We engage actively with the EVPA, we held a workshop at their annual conference in 2019 and we recently joined the Impact Funds Initiative. The Impact Funds Initiative is dedicated to share knowledge across European impact funds, Bridges is hosting the spring gathering in London

NGII

  • Bridges is funding member of the Next Generation Impact Investor Network. Together with the leading impact funds in Europe we’ve set up the Next Generation Impact Investing (NGII) network and are organizing annual get togethers across Europe. The purpose of NGII is to bring “next generation” impact investors closer together and stimulate knowledge and experience sharing in order to foster the impact investing ecosystem in Europe.
 
          Global Steering Group on Impact Investing
Impact Investing Institute

Your organisation’s role in the initiative during the reporting year (see definitions)

Provide a brief commentary on the level of your organisation’s involvement in the initiative. [Optional]

Global Steering Group on Impact Investing

  • Bridges' co-founder and Partner Michele Giddens was involved in the creation of the GSG
  • She is a regular keynote speaker at its summits and chaired a Global Working Group on policy

Impact Investing Institute

  • Bridges' co-founder and Partner Michele Giddens is member of the Advisory Council of the Impact Investing Institute

SG 09.2. Assets managed by PRI signatories (Not Applicable)

SG 10. Promoting RI independently

10.1. Indicate if your organisation promotes responsible investment, independently of collaborative initiatives.

10.2. Indicate the actions your organisation has taken to promote responsible investment independently of collaborative initiatives. Provide a description of your role in contributing to the objectives of the selected action and the typical frequency of your participation/contribution.

Description 

          Bridges impact management team which is our internal impact advisory continuously supports training on RI matters internally and where possible for clients and other investment managers, sharing the learnings from our investment activities.

Frequency of contribution

Description 

          Bridges Insights, our not-for-profit field-building arm, have facilitated an industry-wide effort, the Impact Management Project since October 2016 and are dedicating their resource to it, alongside the IMP/ACT initiative. Together with over 150 organisations and based on the logic and norms of the Impact Management Project, the IMP+ACT Alliance has developed the IMP+ACT Classification System (ICS) which enables asset managers to describe and categorise the social and environmental impacts of their investment portfolios applying the existing consistent and transparent classification logic of the IMP.

Frequency of contribution

Description 

          Where possible the Impact Management Team supports work on RI related issues by sharing our insights and learnings from our investment activities.

Frequency of contribution

Description 

          Bridges Insights facilitates the Impact Management Project which aims to foster better impact management practices and transparency in the sector.

Frequency of contribution

Description 

          Bridges shares its learning and experience from our impact investment activities regularly at events and conferences.

Frequency of contribution

Description 

          Both the Bridges impact management team and Bridges Insights produce RI relevant material. See here for public reports http://www.bridgesfundmanagement.com/publications/ and here https://impactmanagementproject.com/resources/#imp-materials

Frequency of contribution

Description 

          Bridges supports the adoption of PRI actively at conferences, roundtables and other events where possible.

Frequency of contribution

Description 

          We work with OECD, WEF and other RI consultation bodies through the Impact Management project, a project that is facilitated by Bridges Insights since October 2016.
The Bridges impact management team is also involved in non-governmental consultations in particular with the UNDP and UNEP FI.

Frequency of contribution

Description 

          Both the Bridges impact management team and Bridges Insights produce RI relevant material. See here for public reports http://www.bridgesfundmanagement.com/publications/ and here https://impactmanagementproject.com/resources/#imp-materials

Frequency of contribution

10.3. Describe any additional actions and initiatives that your organisation has taken part in during the reporting year to promote responsible investment [Optional]

Bridges is committed to promoting financial and societal returns through its own funds. This year, we continued to engage with a number of industry initiatives and spoke at conferences and events around the world on the topic of responsible and impact investment. 

​Also, the Bridge's Insights team continue to deliver a significant project to capture input from a wide range of stakeholders within the impact investing community to arrive at a consensus on best practice for impact management. This is a significant piece of work and the team are engaging major stakeholders from across the investing value chain that are working together to coordinate standards of impact measurement and management. Details of the project can be found on the website http://www.impactmanagementproject.com/  

 

SG 11. Dialogue with public policy makers or standard setters

11.1. Indicate if your organisation - individually or in collaboration with others - conducted dialogue with public policy makers or regulators in support of responsible investment in the reporting year.

If yes

11.2. Select the methods you have used.

11.3. Where you have made written submissions (individually or collaboratively) to governments and regulatory authorities, indicate if these are publicly available.

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11.4. Provide a brief description of the main topics your organisation has engaged with public policy-makers or regulators on.

Bridges’ co-CEO Michele Giddens has long played an active role in driving a more supportive policy environment for sustainable and impact investing, previously as head of the UK National Advisory Board on Impact Investing and now as a member of the Advisory Council of its successor organisation, the Impact Investing Institute. She has been involved in policy discussions at all levels of Government – up to and including the Prime Minister’s office – while also speaking widely on the imperative and the opportunity to build a more inclusive and sustainable economy. In the last year, her speaking engagements have ranged from the Chatham House Conference in June, to the BVCA Summit in October, to the Impact Investing Summit for Asia-Pacific. She has been supported in this market development work by Bridges partner Maggie Loo, who sits on the BVCA’s Responsible Investing Committee – which works to promote this area within private equity and venture capital broadly, including working with policymakers.

 Bridges has also played a key role in building the market for social outcomes contracts, a form of payment-by results commissioning for the public sector. Bridges has supported more of these contracts than anyone else in the world - working in partnership with 64 central and local Government commissioners - and has been actively working with legislators and policy-makers to promote the benefits of this approach. We are about to publish a policy paper provisionally entitled ‘More Flexible, More Collaborative, More Accountable’, which picks out ten key lessons from our projects that we believe could have broad applicability across public service contracting. 

 
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