INVESTING SUMMIT AIMS TO TACKLE SCOTLAND’S FUTURE
The Times & The Sunday Times Scotland and the Scottish National Investment Bank have joined forces to host the Impact Investing Summit in Glasgow on Tuesday, November 29, 2022. The event will bring together impact investors and business leaders who are using impact capital to help to build Scotland’s future as a fairer and more sustainable economy.
Impact investing is the fastest-growing sector of the booming ESG (environmental, social and governance) investment world which now accounts for more than a third of all global assets under management. The summit aims to put a spotlight on what this innovative approach means for Scottish companies in becoming globally competitive whilst building a sustainable approach.
The audience will hear from prominent voices in the impact investment world as well as John Swinney, deputy first minister, Willie Watt, chair, the Scottish National Investment Bank and Magnus Llewellin, editor, The Times Scotland.
Taking place at the Technology and Innovation Centre at the University of Strathclyde in central Glasgow, the event will explore how impact investing can address the three great challenges facing Scotland: achieving a genuinely net zero economy through decarbonisation; addressing the innovation and productivity challenges faced by the nation; and tackling the inequalities around place.
Willie Watt, chair, the Scottish National Investment Bank: “Impact investing is growing in relevance and popularity but there are also concerns about greenwashing. This conference seeks to identify best practice in impact investing through a dialogue with industry leading professionals so that companies can benefit from this exciting source of capital.”
He added: “Since it was launched in November 2020, with a commitment of £2 billion of capital from the Scottish government, the bank has committed over £300 million of its own funds in investments with clear impact benefits and also attracted an additional half a billion pounds of private capital into these investments.
It invests on commercial terms and is operationally independent of the government. The bank has made impact investments across many sectors: attacking place based inequality, fostering digital innovation and tackling the net zero challenge.”
