The Game Changer:
Best Investment Initiative of the Year
Description
This category looks to highlight financial products, services, activities or initiatives which are tackling a key environmental or social issue, or (if still in development) have the evidenced potential to do so.
It could be something brand new in itself, or a brand new take on how we’ve previously tried to tackle the issue; and it must be replicable and/or scalable. It might be an innovation to drive capital towards solutions to climate change or biodiversity loss or to people living in poverty. It might be a financial product that enables new forms of access to finance for the most vulnerable – for example, refugees or victims of drought or floods. It might be an investment initiative that supports movement towards peace, perhaps in conflict zones. It might be an investment process that makes it easier or more efficient to identify companies that are making the biggest contribution to society and the environment and/or identify those that have the greatest negative impacts.
Judges do not expect perfection in all aspects of the activities of the financial institution that has developed this initiative: they know that embedding sustainable finance across all activities is a challenging process! But the initiative cannot be an isolated example of sustainability within the activities of the financial institution: the judges expect a company to also show evidence that it takes appropriate account of social and environmental issues in wider aspects of its business.
Judges will be looking for true game changing impact or potential, along with a clear explanation of the issue being addressed. The initiative needs to have been running between 2022 and 2024, with significant progress during that time. Long running programmes that started earlier are eligible, but the application should focus on the progress made in the 2022-24 timeframe.
Criteria
Judges will be looking for evidence of progress on the following points (weighting percentages in brackets):
What problem is the ‘Game Changer’ innovation designed to address? Explain the issue, providing clear evidence of the precise nature of the problem, why it needed solving and what alternative (if any) it is replacing (20%)
Why is the financial product, service, activity or initiative entered truly a ‘Game Changer’? How will it make progress that has not been made before? If there are similar offerings/solutions in the market/society (globally), how is this different? (20%)
How was it developed, what research and engagement with target beneficiaries was undertaken, and what was learned from that? What challenges were overcome? What steps have been taken to ensure it is both environmentally sustainable and socially just? (20%)
Describe and provide evidence for the impact it has had and continues to have. If at an early / pre-market stage, explain the impact it is intended to have, backing up the explanations with evidence or data such as market research (30%)
The wider potential for scalability and replicability (10%)
Any confidential data will be treated as such and only shared with the judging panel, all of whom will have signed NDAs.