Your business can do well by doing good

It has become clear that private sector involvement and private finance, resources and expertise will be required to achieve the UN's SDGs. Picture: ELMOND JIYANE

It has become clear that private sector involvement and private finance, resources and expertise will be required to achieve these SDGs and as the debate about the role of business in society is getting louder, an “impact economy” is on the rise. Global Impact Investing Network’s Sizing the Impact Investing Market report, released earlier in April — estimated the current size of the global impact investing market at $502bn. However, the industry’s growth potential is hindered by an increasingly polarised debate about whether impact investing requires a trade-off between financial return and social or environmental impact and a consistent, common understanding of how you measure and claim impact.

Locally, a study was conducted by academics from the University of Stellenbosch to find out whether South Africans are ready to accept and work with impact investors and identified barriers impact investors currently face. Despite this, more than two thirds of existing impact investments have been made in emerging markets such as SA and India. There is a growing call for ethical, socially inclusive investments, and our country is a perfect gateway for impact investors wishing to target the African continent. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s special economic envoy has also recognised impact investing’s potential influence.

Disruptive technologies also present impact investors with unprecedented opportunities to innovate and re-imagine how services and products are provided and distributed; how businesses grow and how markets and industries evolve. Impact investors have an opportunity to play an active role by financing businesses that use disruptive technologies to solve global problems on a large scale.

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