Fundamental and game-changing impact
Fundamental impact
As active owners, Summa engage with portfolio companies to build their capacity on fundamental impact areas. These include impact topics important for all companies, regardless of industry, and for which Summa sets shared goals across the portfolio.
Measure and report impact performance & strategy
Annual and quarterly reporting to identify and manage risks and opportunities across Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) topics, including Principal Adverse Impact indicators (“PAIs”) – s ee PAI table in the Appendix, EU Taxonomy for eligible companies, and Impact Key Performance Indicators (“KPIs”).
Operationalize Via Summa Compliance
Via Summa Compliance includes seven policy and risk management procedures aimed at tackling global governance issues and which are aligned with OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact, and the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact. Learn more about Via Summa in the previous section.
Increase diversity across organization, management, and board
Building leadership teams with diverse competencies and perspectives to win in the future sustainable economy, with an aim for 40% female or non-binary representation on company boards.
Set Science Based Targets (“SBTs”)
Science-based target setting and planning to reduce greenhouse gas emissions aligned with a 1.5˚C trajectory.
Game-changing impact
Active ownership also includes helping companies address specific environmental and/or social challenges identified as core to their business model during the investment process. These opportunities leverage a company’s strategy to positively impact stakeholders across the value chain and reflect what Summa calls “game-changing” impact opportunities.
1 Establishing an impact strategy
Impact ambition and intention
An impact ambition will be defined based on how the core business helps to address an environmental and/or social challenge.
Impact KPIs and targets
Based on the impact ambition, companies identify a handful of KPIs and targets to track and manage over time. For a leading example on KPIs and target-setting, see the case study on Infobric on the next section.
Theory of change
A Theory of Change will articulate a company’s strategy to achieve its impact ambition and how this ambition is aligned with commercial aims. Read the circularity and waste case study in chapter 3 to learn more.
2 Putting the strategy into practice
Implementation
Implementing impact strategies requires clear action plans and resources. Three-phased plans are used to guide a company’s overall strategy and impact priorities during ownership.
Measurement and continuous improvement
Impact is integrated into broader measurement and improvement processes to help ensure progress on impact goals, identify opportunities for innovation, and effectively communicate value to customers.
Company culture
From an impact perspective, purpose-driven cultures help ensure that a company’s explicit and implicit values are driving engagement, ownership, and innovation aligned with impact across functions and levels.