Capital Good
Content
The project
Capital can do good. But how exactly?
For impact investors, it is necessary to generate positive social and environmental impact along with returns. But impact measurement faces a fundamental problem: societies are very complicated and differ based on many contextual factors. To solve this, Capital Good provides a way to measure social impact using a social-science-backed, context-based metric. Working with the impact investment sector of sustainable finance, this metric bolsters credibility and ensures that the invested capital is indeed doing good. The focus area is Accessible & Clean Energy.
The SDGs
SDGs are meant to work together. The metric brings together two important SDGs in a meaningful way to contribute to our main goal: to help end energy-poverty (or the lack of energy access).
SDG 1 – No poverty
Target 7.b.1: This target within SDG7 focuses on expanding energy access to the least served peoples across the world. However, this target is most effective when it is combined with SDG1 (End Poverty) to identify target groups which are often disaggregated in many sub-national levels. Understanding social context is at the core of bridging these two SDGs.
Target 7.3: This target focuses on doubling the rate of energy efficiency by 2030. Read in a real-world framing, this has to go beyond the technology aspect of energy efficiency in isolation. This also requires working together with social questions such as energy adoption, access and distribution
SDG 3 – Affordable and clean energy
Improves access to culturally sensitive mental health care for trauma survivors through digital therapy, self-help, and peer support.
Background
The impact investment sector in Switzerland has grown over the last decade and continues to play an important role in sustainable finance. In this sector, invested capital requires to generate returns as well as positive social and environmental impact. A variety of businesses, actors and stakeholders navigate this space, including asset managers, asset owners and service providers. Especially for the first two groups, harmonising various social impact metrics and social complexities presents special problems in making decisions and guiding invested capital.
To address this, Capital Good provides a way to measure social impact using a social-science backed context-based metric. In short, this metric optimises the “impact chain” for impact investors and helps them navigate it. The so-called “impact chain” is the additional element in this sector, which is different from the value chain. By taking into account the varying needs of different stakeholders, this metric provides a holistic view of the impact chain through a dashboard. It helps asset managers and those they work with, to effectively understand the impact scenarios at various stages, helping in both decision-making and engaging with other stakeholders.
The focus area of Capital Good is Accessible & Clean Energy. With a goal of ending energy poverty, it combines SDG 1 and SDG 7 effectively. Since the founder’s expertise comes from history of energy & social inequalities (research) and development projects (work experience), this combination addresses a rare gap in the impact space. The larger effect of this metric is to bring more credibility to impact measurement and consequently to the sector itself.
