On June 29 CRIC e.V., Invest in Visions and SDG INVESTMENTS jointly hosted Sustainable Investing Workshop in Frankfurt.

In an interactive format, a total of 16 participants (asset owners, banks, asset managers and platforms), mainly from the ranks of CRIC members, explored the question of what is needed in practice for impact projects with a positive effect on the environment and society to be realised. Because the "mismatch" is obvious: On the one hand, there are projects with a demonstrably high ESG impact and, on the other hand, there is also clear investor interest - yet financing for these projects often does not materialise.
Barriers to this have been identified, for example: Their own investment criteria get in the way, they are not "board-eligible", the public sector is not available for start-up financing, there is a lack of transparency and scalability of the projects, measurability and controlling of the impact often pose major challenges, etc.

With regard to regulation, it was positively emphasised that although it strives to steer financial flows towards sustainability, on the other hand, it was criticised that the legal measures are often not coordinated with each other and that too much is wanted at once, which overburdens the market participants and is not conducive to the cause itself.

Especially impact projects that are not listed often have no chance in the sustainability logic of the EU (taxonomy, SFDR, MiFID II) and the associated sustainability preference query. It was therefore also a shared wish that joint, intensified efforts in the direction of positive-constructive lobbying vis-à-vis politics are needed.

Photos: SDG INVESTMENTS