В неотвратимости смены парадигмы уверен и Алексей Рыжков: «Мы переживаем цивилизационный кризис. И чтобы выйти из него победителями, нужно всю нашу деятельность пересмотреть на предмет того, какое воздействие мы оказываем на мир в целом. Сформулировать эти критерии воздействия, понять, что мы не можем локально подходить к решению важных вопросов. Мы не можем построить свое локальное благополучие или свое локальное счастье, не решив общих проблем. Я считаю, что в этой логике и в логике победы над вызовами и угрозами, которые перед нами стоят, мы должны перейти в новый формат деятельности в целом: бизнеса, государственной деятельности, всех отдельно взятых людей, всех игроков рынка».

Текст подготовила Мария Кригер

Social impact investments, or impact investments, are becoming increasingly prominent in the modern world building. At the same time, the concept itself, which puts classical investment cases on a level with social initiatives, still remains a thing in itself. What means «impact»? How to assess social impact? Do we need universal metrics to evaluate it? We asked people who know about the topic of impact investments to answer these questions on the experience of their own investments or a deep expert immersion in the topic.

The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) defines "impact investment" concept as "an investment made with the intention to make a positive measurable social or environmental impact and obtain a financial return." In practice today there is no common understanding of impact investment term. It allows for many interpretations. However, the venture investor Ksenia Frank, the chairman of the supervisory board of the Elena and Gennady Timchenko Charitable Foundation and a member of the supervisory board of the Zerno Ventures venture impact foundation essentially agrees with the GIIN statement: "These are investments in the projects that resolve and mitigate some important social problem in addition to financial gain for investors." She believes that the very fact of financial returns in this case is a prerequisite, along with a measurable social effect: "These are two components that are the must for impact investing, in comparison with any other effect, even if it is also very necessary and in demand".

It’s not news that impact investing is near to other forms of socially responsible business development. Jioulnar Asfari, director of the SOLj Center for the Promotion of Innovation in the Society, says the same thing. According to the expert, finding place for impact investing among other investment strategies is, in fact, an attempt to separate it from ESG investments (environment-social/sustainability-governance), which began to form a little earlier. There is a steady movement that sees the difference between the first and the second in that the ESG concept, as a rule, arises within already existing business and impact projects are initially created in order to solve certain social or environmental problems.

At the same time, experts have no consentience regarding the equivalence of the two parts of the definition – «transformative» and «repayable» ones. In fact, financial dividends are not a fundamental point for the majority: the main thing is that investments work for a stable social effect. Zero return on social bonds is permissible, says