Natixis Green & Sustainable Hub’s Center of Expertise released its first flagship report titled “Solving the Sustainable Development Goals Rubik’s Cube”, to mark the 3rd anniversary of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that was agreed upon in September 2015 by 193 countries. This publication aims at spurring methodical innovation and proposes actionable tools for embedding SDG footprint into portfolio management or corporate strategy and funding.

The SDG paradigm is plunging us into the era of geospatial investing that pays attention to impact intentionality, intensity, additionality and transformative spill-over. An investment displayed as theoretically “making a difference” is no longer enough. There are questions that need answers: “as compared to what”, “where”, “upon whom” and “how much”.

The SDGs are a formidable tool to apprehend those yardstick concerns. However, there is a long journey to come from the superficial use of the SDG stickers to the grail of evidence-based causation. With this in mind, Natixis has developed an asset-class agnostic methodology and scoring matrix. Its approach starts from SDG achievement gaps in locations where a project occurs or where a company has a strong foothold. It then addresses criteria such as acuteness, suitability for purpose, contextual ability to deliver, contribution, interlinkages and disclosure. Cases studies and guidelines to designing frameworks will be proposed.