Casey Taylor, Executive Director at Conscious Investment Management (CIM) provides a summary of the investment activities and impact performance in the 2023/2024 Impact Report.
CIM recognise they can only manage the impact that they can measure and through this report, continue to build upon their track record of measuring and transparently communicating their impact.
Highlights from the Report
- Conscious Investment Management (“CIM”) has over A$400 million of capital dedicated to impact1 and to date has made 11 investments via its managed funds, across social and affordable housing, Specialised Disability Accommodation, distributed rooftop solar, carbon farming and social impact bonds. These investments have been made with the support of approximately 800 investors.
- CIM made two new investments during the year. The first is a carbon farming investment made alongside environmental not-for-profit Greening Australia, delivering biodiversity and carbon sequestration outcomes via native plantings. The second is a Specialist Disability Accommodation (“SDA”) investment which involved financing the acquisition of 42 dwellings alongside existing partner, Liverty Housing, delivering housing outcomes for people with disability and complex care needs.
- The CIM Impact Fund has been awarded the highest rating of “Sustainability Plus” under RIAA’s new sustainability ratings system. During the year, CIM also became a Signatory of the Operating Principles for Impact Management and was a finalist at the Australian Impact Investment Awards in the Impact Asset Manager of the year category.
- This year’s report includes a new section which describes our ‘lessons learned’ about investing in emerging asset classes such as social and affordable housing.
Since inception, assets financed by CIM’s investors include:
- 270 social and affordable homes;
- 114 Specialist Disability Accommodation apartments;
- 62 distributed rooftop solar assets;
- 2 carbon farming investments targeting biodiversity and/or First Nations outcomes (which aim to sequester 570,000 tonnes of CO2 combined); and
- Supporting close to 350 vulnerable children and their families in the education and out-of-home care systems, through social impact bond arrangements.