Certify the Positive Impact of your Investment

Whether an impact fund manager, corporate investor, government, development finance institution, philanthropic organisation, insurer, or another type of an investor, Gold Standard enables your portfolios or programmes of activities to credibly deliver on Sustainable Development and Climate impacts using best practice impact management and performance monitoring practice.

Building on 20 years of maximising the impact of finance toward ‘climate security and sustainable development for all,’ Gold Standard helps all types of investors: 

Gold Standard helps portfolios for both equity funds, and debt funds deliver on their sustainability strategies, ensuring real impact without compromising on financial returns.

Our Requirements provide guidance to fund managers from the start and throughout the entire project investment cycle. The Requirements inform the investment strategy and decision making, as well as impact monitoring and data collection. Third party verification at the fund level provides confidence in impact reporting and associated claims, protecting against greenwashing.

Ensure blended finance initiatives are ambitious, equitable, and effective.

Blended finance can leverage public and private resources to channel funding where it’s needed most, yet where private sector investment alone may be insufficient or where risks are high, and to maximise the impact of that finance.

By blending different types of capital, financing gaps can be bridged, investment risks reduced, and the viability of projects improved that would otherwise not be financially feasible. Whether issuing tradable certificates like carbon credits, delivering impact claims, or certifying a fund or debt vehicle, Gold Standard’s value-add to blended finance vehicles lies in supporting a broad range of partners to work together efficiently to achieve impact goals in the short and long term and to report credibly and transparently, ultimately driving more private sector investment.

Drive SDG outcomes and certify impacts where they are most needed through traditional blended finance vehicles.

Traditional blended finance vehicles typically involve the use of concessional funds, such as grants or low-interest loans, to help mobilise additional private capital for investments. These can support projects such as sustainable infrastructure, healthcare, education, or renewable energy that deliver positive social and environmental impact. 

Blended finance vehicles can reduce the following barriers to private investment: 

- High perceived and real risk  

- Lower risk-adjusted returns relative to comparable investments

Example: Subnational Climate Fund (SCF) Initiative

The Fund Requirements within Gold Standard for the Global Goals are a cornerstone of the collaboration between Catalytic, IUCN, and Pegasus Capital Advisors in the Subnational Climate Fund. The Gold Standard team supports the impact investor, Pegasus Capital Advisors, to deliver on their sustainable development strategy, through the development of tools for impact assessment at each decision point in the process.

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) serves as the risk-taking anchor investor on this USD $750 Million equity and $28 million technical assistance blended finance vehicle. Technical assistance supports the identification, feasibility study and environmental impact assessment (EIA) financing, development, and implementation of a pipeline of subnational projects ($5-$75 million), aligned with host country Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

Leverage Gold Standard’s expertise and impact measurement and management tools to attract investment into landscape, seascape, and jurisdiction level initiatives while complying with emerging regulations and sustainability targets.

A landscape approach works to align the interests of government, business and people within a defined area. It coordinates across all biomes, sectors, and stakeholders, balancing the needs of the economy, the environment and society while allowing complex sustainability challenges to be addressed for the long term. The approach in effect can define investment opportunities that stacked together contribute to sustainable development outcomes at the level of the defined landscape.

Gold Standard is collaborating with the Landscape Finance Lab, Commonlands, WWF, IDH, and other landscape innovators to inform how to structure sustainable investments in a broad set of interventions that foster sustainable development, conservation, and responsible land management practices, while managing the complex trade offs, minimising risks, and optimising for impact.

Address data gaps, drive change and earn recognition toward sustainability targets by working collectively in shared sourcing areas.

Gold Standard supports companies seeking to drive climate and sustainable development impact within and beyond their supply chains, and the challenging spaces in between where sustainability data is not traceable, and in shared sourcing areas where incentives to invest in change is limited.

Collective action funds can help companies address multiple sustainability challenges and meet relevant targets, comply with regulations, and improve their business performance by improving the resilience of their supply chain. These funds can support multiple projects within a landscape, seascape or jurisdiction, across a value chain, or through a portfolio approach to beyond value chain action.

Learn more about Gold Standard’s work with corporates