Especially for distribution purposes ESG Leaders & Chasers make ideal PARTNERS. And sometimes direct FUNDERS, through their incubators, Venture Capital funds or directly through Mergers&Acquisition. The Thought Piece presents a checklist for innovators searching standard data on negative impact risk issues and positive impact opportunities. In Key Performance Indicators KPI's please! Environment, Social, Governance or ESG score of Operations Materiality or Relevance per sector, industry, region. Forces influencing Issues: costs, regulation: limitation & taxation & activists (shareholders!) Opportunities: Collaboration & Competition and Catalyzing Public Policy: Pilots, Scaling Finance & Preferred Partners. In the Appendix you'l find dozens of positive & negative themes listed which Partners & Funders weigh in their impact risk & opportunity strategies and due diligence. On which abundant data is also present in sustainability reports, websites etc. In part 5 of our course on Investible Impact Innovations we present you with a Model Impact Pitch Deck for marketing & funding built on the impact risks & metrics used by (aspiring) impact investors.

1. Seeking PARTNERS or
FUNDING for Investible
Impact Innovations?
You can start with Impact Icons
aiming for disruptive change.
Aiming high, with a niche
marketing offering an unique
solution (proposition USP2).
Preferably defined in Key
Performance Indicators the
market knows & applys.
Especially for distribution ESG
Leaders & Chasers make ideal
PARTNERS. They are usually the
larger companies that are aware
of their unique impact risks &
opportunities and develop
strategies to manage them.
They are also Transparent, Disclose data. In the EU for larger companies it’s obliged by law, or as part of their Global
Reporting Initiative commitment, their branding or collaboration in sectors or on issues such as packaging & plastic.
To assure their OPERATIONAL Net Impact, EFFECTIVITY check their overall ESG score on: Environment, Social &
Governance management, benchmarked to up thousands of other businesses and in their sector and region.
OPERATIONS refers to the way they run the business and manage their ESG risks & opportunities. It says little about
their core business impact. Yahoo Finance & Sustainalytics give ESG scores of listed corporations, their peers and
sectors. CSR Hub benchmarks ten times as many corporations & institutions based on multiple data sources.
Drs Alcanne J Houtzaager MA, Investible Impact Innovations, Tools & Thought Pieces p. 1

2. Mega corporations are often active in more than one sector, industry to spread their business risks & revenues hence
called ‘diversified conglomerates’ Question: is Unilever a food, shampoo or cleaning liquids company? Or GE a power,
healthcare or aviation company? Is Google an advertising, cloudcomputing or data marketing company?
So next is looking into the MATERIALITY or RELEVANCE of the risks & opportunities and their core activities impact.
For instance Mining companies face the highest Environmental Risks of all sectors when extracting their Natural
Resources. IT software companies need to focus on Social Risks & Opportunities and assure Diversity & Equality of
their Human Resources to attract & retain the unique talents they need. Governance is about legal Compliance.
COMPANIES HAVE TO BALANCE NEGATIVE & POSITIVE IMPACTS.
Negative Impact face costs. Uncertainty costs in the market e.g. by depletion of resources. And costs of regulation
limiting production or emissions & waste or (in)direct taxation. Eg on tobacco and fossil fuel. (excise duty or levies).
Ambitions and Progress to lower negative impact are telling proof of risk & cost management awareness, ambitions
& performance. And fortune, because you will likely also find lawsuits, scandals and boycotts especially when online
searching info on the large conglomerates ESG Leaders & Chasers. To lower negative impact some companies sell off
their negative impact divisions such as fossil fuel extraction, meat production & factory farming, sweets & softdrinks.
ACTIVISTS come in all shapes and sizes. From local hero’s to professional BINGO’s Big International Non Government
Organizations publishing reports & planned publicity campaigns and events. They push issues & lobby for policies
from companies, sectors & governments. There is a surging movement of activist shareholders asking questions,
proposing policy changes at annual shareholder meetings. Not about revenues & salaries but about sustainability &
environmental impact. Such as hedge fund Engine Nr 1 successfully challenging Exxon Mobil Corp leadership: 2 seats
on the board, to better deal with the risks of Climate Change. Or pure, professional positive impact ’activist’ FollowThis
engaging with oilcompany Royal Dutch Shell supported by Dutch institutional investors & thousands of individuals.
WALK THE TALK
However fast or ambitious positive impact strategies need to be backed up by Key Performance Indicators KPI’s on
their performance & progress and for benchmarking purposes.
Drs Alcanne J Houtzaager MA, Investible Impact Innovations, Tools & Thought Pieces p. 2

3. Positive Impact Opportunities Management focuses on Resilience to survice e.g. the 4th Industrial Revolution or
Pandemics. Futurproofing corporations grow their positive impact or transform completely. Think of companies
concentrating on health such as Philips Medical (equipment) which started as a lightning company and DSM a
former mining company, moved into chemistry and now focuses on nutrition & health. We are awaiting office & retail
shop property moguls to move their focus to affordable housing projects. Or gaming companies to utilize their
talents & tools for education & vocational training. The Hospitality industry transform fully to Wellness & Health.
GROWING PAINS
Transformations can be incremental, Philips & DSM took decades to reshape, or rapid when the need arises or
technology accelerates marketgrowth. Strategic Leadership is required funding Innovation, Research & Development
to create the value propositions to launch, market and generate faster growing revenues than current Cash Cows.
COLLABORATION & COMPETITION
Companies can choose to compete in the market or collaborate or do both to speed up impact innovations.
They can develop & market their own innovations, with or for supply partners or with the competition in e.g.
assurance systems. They can team up over issues such as Palmoil, Cotton, Banana’s in sustainable harvesting
certification. With assurance & certification coming of age adopting existing standards seems the smart way to go,
but standards need to be upgraded by all and adherence to certifications robustly checked for trustworthynes.
Just google your impact innovation and collaboration, alliance, network, league or council to find examples.
Another way to compete is organizing ... Competitions. Sectors give awards for the best innovations & new products
sponsored by the marketleader (or a group of supplier sponsors). Contests are organized to catalyze impact such as
the Global Impact Competition or simple smal scale pitches with a winner at conferences to promote innovations
and out of the box thinking. They can still rack up substantial prizes, investment capital or technical assistance.
Pages and pages of data in Annual Sustainability Reports & infographics reporting massive standardised data on
environmental & social impacts and are always quite impressive. But again look at the whole picture and the
Materiality & Relevance of specific impact risks for the core activities as part of your Partner/Funder research.
Drs Alcanne J Houtzaager MA, Investible Impact Innovations, Tools & Thought Pieces p. 3

4. POLITICS
Last but not least, public policy aims to catalyze positive impact by putting it on the agenda. Preferably with an
appealing name such as investible impact innovation alliteration, an abbreviation or acronym. Such as GLOBAL
GOALS, Agenda 2030 or Yes we can. Government contractors love slogans with we do it, deliver, make it happen.
Policy instruments vary, starting with data collection ‘research’ to assess the size of the issue and it’s wicked problem
dimensions: who (multiple) can fix this and how and the development of an environmental / societal business case.
Subsidies aren’t sexy any more, so let’s go for sustainability or impact labeled loans for pilot’s to test small scale,
local interventions, public tenders to attract scaling solution proposals or impact funds to catalyze private market
initiatives. EXAMPLES: InvestNL is the Dutch government’s xBillion Euro fund to supply impact enterpries with
growthcapital (of which 50% is private investment capital). It’s run by a former Finance minister and kickstarts
companies in focus area’s: carbon neutrality, circular economy, accessible healthcare and innovative scale ups.
InvestInternationalNL is it’s recent development co-operation spin off, run by the former CEO of IDH the sustainable
internation trade institute. The Netherlands are big international traders & investors in eg agro & food (technology).
PREFERED PARTNERS
Governments can choose to work with impact icons or companies aiming to go darkgreen. The Dutch government
did this when it launched it’s first AAA (best) state (sovereign) greenbond (loan). ’32 investors with green credentials
were given an additional allocation of up to 10%. 22% of the overall issuance was allocated to such green investors. Green
or Climate bonds are often oversubscribed, demand is bigger than the loan size. ClimateBonds.net The Dutch Greenbond
was issued at the request of Dutch institutional (large) Investors and the joint due diligence process led to the ’darkgreen’
label. Green, Sustainability, Impact credentials were given based on the investors impact ambitions and expertise.
The World Benchmarking Alliance which constructs indices based on impact ambitions & performance has a transparent
list of 2000 of the most influential companies for the Global Goals. https://www.worldbenchmarkingalliance.org/sdg2000/
#Partners. It launches the list of the 400 most influential finance institutions #Funders this Autumn.
On the next page you wil find an oversight of the most common issues on which investors seek involvement & actions
information. Both negative & positive. But there are many more initiatives out there eg Living Wage, Factory Farming etc.
Drs Alcanne J Houtzaager MA, Investible Impact Innovations, Tools & Thought Pieces p. 4

5. APPENDIX
Negative Impact Controversies Risks
Alcoholic Beverages*, Adult Entertainment* (Porn), Gambling*, Tobacco* Products, Animal Testing, Fur & Specialty Leather,
Controversial Weapons, Small (Fire) Arms*, Catholic Values, Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO), Military Contracting,
Pesticides, Thermal Coal. *AGTAF exclusion. SOURCES: YahooFinance > Sustainability, based on Sustainalytics data.
https://www.sustainalytics.com/esg-ratings
PEOPLE: Burma, Iran or Sudan Involved, Child Labor Involved, Military Contractor, Tea Party Supporter, Trump Involved.
PLANET: Animal Test Users, Coal Involved, Fracking Involved, GMO Involved, Nuclear Power Involved**, Pesticides & Pollutants
Involved, ** Low Carbon&High Waste & Risk Controversy. SOURCE: CSRHub.com (select issues in the search mode)
Green House Gas emissions & Carbon Intensity of funds or socially responsible impact exposure of ETFs on etf.com f
SOURCE: MSCI, Morningstar, S&P Global, Fitch Relevance, Bloomberg, Refinitiv, Russel ...
Positive Impact Opportunities
PEOPLE: Diverse Board, Gay & Lesbian Sensitive, Labor Union Supporter, Working Mother Friendly NRA Anti Gun List.
PLANET: Oceana Red List, (Mercury in seafood), Sustainable Forrestry Supporter. SOURCE: CSRHub.com.
Green Revenues Index: Russell Global Impact (SDG contribution) MSCI ESG, Morningstar Sustainability Rating
SOCIAL: Gender Benchmark; Corporate Human Rights Benchmark. FOOD: Seafood Stewardship Index & Access to Seeds Index.
CLIMATE & ENERGY: Just transition NATURE; DIGITAL Inclusion; FINANCIAL System. SOURCE: Worldbenchmarkingalliance.org
FOOD: Access to Nutrition Index (atni). HEALTH: Access to Medicine Index, Access to Vaccines Index, AntiMicrobial Resistance
benchmark. SOURCE: Access to Medicine Foundation. MINING: IRMA Responsible Mining Initiative. ….
CURRENT THEMES
PLANET: Climate Change, Biodiversity, Nitrogen, Sugar, Sweet Water Use, Waste Management, (micro) Plastic & Packaging, , ....
PEOPLE: Black Lives Matter, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transsexual, Queer (Intersex) GLBQT(I), COVID response … various sources.
Questions or Comments?
Please contact me on linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/alcannehoutzaager/
And Follow me on Twitter https://twitter.com/alcanne
Drs Alcanne J Houtzaager MA, Investible Impact Innovations, Tools & Thought Pieces p. 5