The Impact World This Week: 29 May 2025

Global: Efforts towards net-zero carbon emissions are stalling around the world and among impact funds too, according to the latest research by Phenix Capital. The report, Net-Zero Funds at a Glance, found that a third of Phenix’s database of 2,700 impact funds are net-zero aligned (meaning they aim for the net carbon footprint across their portfolio to be zero), a similar proportion as last year. The number of net-zero impact funds has increased incrementally to reach 962 in 2024, and 968 in 2025. The report finds impact investors are not keen to be “net-zero aligned” for a number of reasons, including a lack of high-quality data and uncertainty regarding future government policies. Most net-zero aligned funds target SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy) and 13 (climate action).

UK: Elvis & Kresse co-founder Kresse Wesling bagged a prestigious prize last week, when she was presented with a Cartier Women’s Initiative Impact award in Japan for ‘preserving the planet’. The Cartier Women's Initiative supports women impact entrepreneurs. Impact awards are given to existing fellows of the programme and winners receive a US$100,000 grant and one year of ‘human capital support and media visibility’. Elvis & Kresse is a UK social enterprise and B Corp which makes luxury accessories and homeware from reclaimed and recycled materials, including rubber fire hoses and scrap leather. When receiving the award, Wesling said: “When we started people said we were radical. Now I just say: ‘catch up’.” Applications are now open for the 2026 Cartier Women’s Initiative entrepreneurship programme and will close on 24 June.

• Read more: Social Business Profile: Elvis & Kresse

Canada: The 2025 Social Procurement and Social Enterprise Champion award winners were announced this week. Organised by social enterprise Buy Social Canada, the awards celebrate organisations that use purchasing decisions and business activities as a force for good. This year’s social procurement champions are: public sector energy provider SaskPower, which prioritises procurement from Indigenous businesses and women-owned businesses; Providence Health Care, the non-profit owner of the St Paul’s and Mount Saint Joseph Hospitals in Vancouver and Assiniboine Credit Union, which practices social procurement in their own supply chain and models strategic purchasing to others. The 2025 social enterprise champion is Community Impact Real Estate Society.

UK: The UK’s 20% increase in child poverty in the last decade can be combatted by social outcomes partnerships, according to social investment pioneer Sir Ronald Cohen. Through social outcomes partnerships (which include social impact bonds) commissioners only pay when outcomes are delivered, while impact investors provide upfront capital to socially motivated providers. Writing in the New Statesman, Cohen cites independent analysis conducted in 2024 which found social outcomes partnerships generated £9 of public value for every £1 of public spending. He wrote: “The way to make progress in current circumstances is for the government to create a central outcomes payment fund, to unlock private capital through outcomes partnerships…Government should not delay in establishing a £1bn Children’s Outcomes Fund, as a first step.” The issue of the New Statesman was edited for former UK prime minister Gordon Brown, who made a similar call to the previous government in May 2024. 

• Read more: Exclusive: UK government’s Social Impact Investment Advisory Group members revealed

Global: Impact and sustainable investment firm Mirova this week announced a merger with Thematic AM, an asset manager focused on particular themes including AI and robotics, water, safety and health. Mirova, which has currently €32bn in assets under management, already offers some thematic investments in environment, climate, biodiversity, job creation and diversity. The merger with Thematics, which manages €3.1bn, aims to “create a unique offering in the asset management market, combining innovation and positive impact”. The two companies are both subsidiaries of investment firm Natixis, itself owned by French co-operative bank Groupe Banque Populaire. Mirova CEO Philippe Zaouati said the merger would “strengthen [Mirova’s] position as a leader in responsible investment. This initiative perfectly aligns with our goal of doubling our assets by 2030 and increasing our positive impact on the environment and society.”

Movers and Shakers

• Sharon Gilles is Social Investment Scotland’s new chief operations officer. Gilles joins from charity MND Scotland, where she was director of operations and company secretary since 2022.
• Unity Trust Bank has named Christine Coe as the first female chair of its board of directors. Coe has over 40 years’ global credit and risk experience at HSBC.
• David Lydiat is the new head of external affairs at Plunkett UK, the national charity that supports rural community businesses. Lydiat joins Plunkett after working as public affairs and policy manager at the Horticultural Trades Association and has several years’ experience in Westminster and the devolved parliaments.