Bridges' ambition is to align all of Bridges funds’ impact management practices with the principles of the Impact Management Project to drive impact and commercial value. Achievements to date include:

• Increase clarity and transparency of what we stand for by introducing fund-level outcome goals using the 5 dimensions of impact
• Improve and expand investment opportunities refining outcome-based sourcing
• Upgrade existing impact tools to drive efficiency and optimise resources during selection
• Develop an impact scoring methodology which allows us to classify the impact of an investment into one of the three impact classes: A(void harm), B(enefit stakeholders) or C(ontribute to solutions) impact classes
• Identify core metrics to be tracked for relevant outcomes we want to achieve across the fund (incl. direct feedback) and collect consistent levels of evidence
• Manage impact more actively, systematically and effectively, prioritising with our portfolio companies where we see most material risks and opportunities for positive change
• Engage continuously with investment teams to make sure it is achievable and grounded in current business practice and practical for other parts of the business.
   

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• Integrated use of B Impact Assessment in the investment decision process, to assess ESG factors of potential investments and set a plan for improvement post-deal.
• Introduced a tool to accurately track key environmental indicators including carbon footprint, waste efficiency and water usage across our portfolio companies.
• Adopted updated portfolio review templates that focus discussions even further on ESG to enable better impact management.
• Closer engagement with Impact Management team, Bridges' internal impact advisory arm post-investment to help mitigate risk and pursue ESG opportunities

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Refinement of 3rd party data platform used to collect impact metrics on an annual basis and store historic data for Sustainable Growth and Social Sector Funds.

ESG metrics incorporated into data platform as part of Impact scorecards and will be used to assess performance in the period.

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.​

The Impact Management Project is by now the voice of 2000 practitioners from across geographies and disciplines to work on:

1. Shared fundamentals to make it easier to work together to improve our positive impact on people and the planet, and try to prevent negative impact
2. Make the practice of impact management as easy-to-understand and accessible as possible, moving from conceptual agreement to practical application

The Impact Management Project team have engaged a wide range of stakeholders since the start of the project in October 2016 across the impact investing value chain to identify, document and reach consensus on best practice for impact management. 

Last year, we adopted the IMP principles across our investment value chain. The updated methodology is data-driven, it allows us to classify and assess investments at an asset and portfolio level. Across our funds, we now use the A, B, C impact classification which helps the communication with investors and external stakeholders.

Please find more details on how we have incorporated the IMP into our own impact methodology in the 2018/2019 Annual Report  https://www.bridgesfundmanagement.com/publications/bridges-annual-report-2018-19/

https://www.bridgesfundmanagement.com/publications/bridges-annual-report-2018-19/