Impact Washing: The Great Risk to Growing the Impact Investing Industry

As more and more capital is deployed into impact investments, particularly from large mainstream asset managers, there is a growing fear that the impact investing label is being abused and the intentionality of true impact could get diluted or lost within the noise. This could lead to fewer dollars being catalyzed to invest in solutions to solve social and environmental problems. At the 21st annual Social Enterprise Conference, Capital for Good, Mark Berryman, managing director at Caprock, and Cecilia Emmy Chao, managing director at Bain Capital Double Impact, discussed how impact investors are seeking discipline, improved impact reporting practices, and impact verification to avoid and eradicate impact washing.