Our founding motivation.
Social and environmental justice through investor action.
Kristian Nammack has worked in the capital markets since 1986 and is now focused exclusively on SRI, ESG, and impact investing.
In addition to his work with field-building through Hansa Impact, Kristian advises on sustainability through his firm Nordic Reach LLC.
Kristian works with a broad spectrum of stakeholders including policymakers, fund managers, large asset owners, family offices, impact entrepreneurs, and academic initiatives.
Kristian points out that the correlation between return and impact can be positive if structured correctly. In the best case - impact actually drives the return. Kristian understands the benefits of blended finance, but does not himself work with concessionary return focused investors.
Ultimately, Kristian sees a need to focus on investor-grade impact investing as it has evolved into a profitable endeavor. This is often misunderstood, as impact came out of the philanthropic sector among US foundations - in turn, a byproduct of mission-related investments.
Hansa Impact is an open initiative to share ideas, define best practice, and promote the concept of investor-grade impact investing.
Invest meaningfully.
We have a passion for the environment, social justice, and best practice governance. We believe these issues are financially material from both a risk and return perspective. We are action-oriented and want to express our passions through the capital markets by rethinking our investment decisions.
Our focus is “investor-grade” impact investing. I think we coined that term. By “investor-grade” we mean impact investments that seek the best risk-adjusted returns without compromise. Rather than inhibiting return, the impact is actually driving it.
We distinguish this from philanthropy; we love and admire our philanthropist friends but differentiate their activity from investing.
If you measure the problem…
We are frustrated by a lack of action on climate.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere continues to accelerate. Temperatures globally continue to hit record highs. Linear systems creating consumer waste continue to proliferate despite attempts at recycling and moving to circular systems.
Economic and social problems are at breaking points globally.
Income inequality, rising poverty, systemic racism, unhealthy consumption-driven lifestyles, low-nutrition fast food, still proliferate. Thankfully, there is now more measurement and disclosure with tools developed by the likes of the GRI and SASB.
Poor governance continues - especially with unfair remuneration policies and a focus on short-term shareholder interests.
With public companies, the pay gap between average and C-Suite employees is at a record high. Race and gender pay gaps continue. Shareholder primacy is still the first instinct, with an unhealthy focus on short-term quarterly earnings results. We assert that everything has an impact one way or another.
… you can build the solution.
Once we discover the sources and measure the magnitude of the problems, we can begin to define the way out.
We like the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a template for a liveable world. Whether we are meeting investors or researching a fund manager, we map their intentions to the SDGs. We find solutions from among investors of all kinds and among fund managers in all asset classes. We are not only encouraged but also excited by the shifts we are seeing and advocating.
Stakeholder capitalism is starting to make the rounds.
There are more vocal and active shareholder coalitions like the IIGCC, CDP, PRI, GIIN, Climate 100+, ICCR, and most recently the R3 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Using investment capital to help solve our entrenched environmental, social, and governance shortfalls works.