Crain Currency teamed up with Mission Throttle’s Founder, Phillip W. Fisher, and Douglas Bitonti Stewart, executive director of the Max M. Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation, to curate a collection of stories that showcases the power of impact.
Amit Bouri is a pioneer in impact investing and co-founder of the Global Impact Investing Network. Here he explains how the integration of ESG and DEI have clarified — and maybe confused — impact investing.
What sparked your interest in launching the Global Impact Investing Network?
Before launching the GIIN, I was working for the Monitor Institute, an experience that helped me understand the potential of how investment dollars could help drive social and environmental impact. While in my role, I was constantly wondering: “What would it take at a systemic scale to move the needle on global inequality, advancements in global health and turning the tide on climate change?”
What I found was that this idea requires more than just driving transactional value. It requires a network where investors can share best practices and opportunities on a global scale and connect nodes of leadership where ideas can flow, with the end effect of moving capital toward positive impact. This is what led to the founding of the GIIN and then, subsequently, our IRIS+ system, which is designed to provide investors with common and standardized metrics to understand the impact. Our work with IRIS+ explores areas where investors are focused, such as mitigating climate change, promoting sustainable agriculture, addressing racial and gender inequality, and more.