Starfish Reflection – Photo by TJ Watt
Our Story
Translating global goals into local action
The adoption of the Paris Agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2030 agenda revealed a significant capital gap of about $5-7 trillion USD annually, most of which must come from the private sector. While capital is widely available in financial markets, it is not currently flowing at the scale and speed needed to meet these global goals. This is where impact investing comes in. Impact investments are investments that intentionally seek to tackle societal and environmental challenges while still earning competitive returns. However, despite recent signs of growth in both the public and private markets globally, the impact finance ecosystem remains very small and highly inefficient.
Embracing a “think global, act local” mindset, we saw the need for a competitive impact investing ecosystem in British Columbia (BC) and Canada to accelerate the flow of capital in alignment with regional and national SDGs and climate goals. BC is already leading the way in the climate transition and is home to world-class postsecondary institutions and a vibrant sustainable innovation ecosystem with a highly collaborative culture. As the capital city of BC, Victoria is uniquely positioned to become an impact investing hub. The Victoria Forum offered the perfect opportunity to engage local actors in discussing a roadmap for this vision. This marked the start of our Impact Investing Hub’s story.
”We are proud to support this initiative as part of our commitment to combatting climate change and as a reflection of our broader sense of responsibility to address the world’s most critical problems.
Saul Klein, May 2023Former Dean of the Gustavson School of Business
Our journey so far
2017: Convening stakeholders
During the Victoria Forum held in November 2017, we organized a full-day invite-only workshop convening a diverse group of stakeholders, including capital providers, social entrepreneurs, academics, students, local government representatives, and indigenous leaders. The workshop challenged participants to generate an innovative strategy to establish Victoria as an Impact Investing Hub. The workshop was co-chaired by Dr. Basma Majerbi and Mr. Peter Elkins and started with an opening statement by Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps. To facilitate open and free dialogue, the session co-led by Dr. Majerbi and Dr. David Dunne, followed an interactive design with participants actively engaging and sharing ideas according to the Chatham House rule. Other guiding principles included challenging concepts not people, openness, inclusiveness, and non-ownership of ideas.
Turning challenges into opportunity
Workshop participants identified several barriers to accelerating impact investments in the region; these included a lack of understanding about impact investing and its benefits by multiple stakeholders, a need to demystify its concepts, a lack of infrastructure to connect investors with social entrepreneurs, and a lack of financial vehicles or large-scale projects suitable to attract institutional investors. Additionally, comprehensive education, further research, and infrastructure development are needed to overcome these obstacles. Workshop participants recognized that the University of Victoria, as a trusted and credible community member, is the ideal organization to lead the creation of a regional impact investing hub.
2018-2019: Incubation period
Between 2018 and 2019, Dr. Majerbi engaged her students in several pilot projects in collaboration with local and regional organizations to better understand the current landscape and identify gaps in the impact investing ecosystem. We also organized public events hosted at University of Victoria, such as the Climate smart finance panel discussion which attracted more than 150 attendees in the summer of 2019 to discuss the findings of the Expert Panel on Sustainable Finance released the same year. This period was essential in building awareness and creating a network of community leaders and organizations that would land their support to the Hub and help shape its vision, mission and priorities.
2020: The birth of VI3Hub
The idea of launching an Impact Investing Hub at UVic started to take shape in early 2020. The concept gained support from many units and departments on campus and from other stakeholders in the community, but it still needed funding. UVic has established a Strategic Framework Impact Fund (SFIF) dedicated to supporting innovative initiatives that accelerate the implementation of the framework and advance UVic’s priorities and strategies. Dr. Majerbi applied for seed funding from the SFIF to develop a proof of concept for what was then called the Vancouver Island Impact Investing Hub (VI3Hub). The VI3Hub initiative was perfectly aligned with the university’s strategic priorities and was awarded the highest funding amount of $80,000 during the 2020 competition. funding was announced in October 2020 and actual work on the Hub started in early 2021.
2021-2022: Community engagement and internal consultations
A steering committee made of an interdisciplinary team of faculty and staff was created to advice on the Hub’s mission and priorities. An initial internal engagement workshop took place in February 2021 and was attended by an extended group of faculty and fellows from various units and research centers at University of Victoria. It became clear from the various breakout discussions that the Hub should have a more holistic approach that goes beyond the initial proposed focus on climate impact investing given the interconnection between climate change, other environmental issues such as biodiversity loss, and the issue of rising inequalities. We also engaged in external consultations with local and regional actors including accelerators/incubators, foundations, local governments, and other research institutions. The reaction was very positive and validated our approach and vision for the Hub.
How we think and the road ahead
From its inception, the Hub adopted a systemic impact approach. Although the ultimate goal is to accelerate investments in the net-zero transition, through its three-pronged approach -education, collaborative research, and data sharing- the Hub seeks to advance work that enhances our understanding of sustainability-related risks and opportunities in financial markets. The Hub’s work is not limited to studying impact investing and best practices in the field, but instead explores various topics related to how global risks such as climate change, rising inequalities and biodiversity loss are being incorporated by financial actors and other relevant stakeholders. A better understanding of both risks and opportunities will enable businesses and capital providers to channel financial capital to much-needed areas and projects to accelerate the transition to net zero.
Enable collaboration to facilitate multidisciplinary research, education and experiential learning alongside community partners to fill critical knowledge gaps.
Leverage regional and global connections to create awareness, develop future talent, and work with stakeholders to scale impact investments and climate-aligned finance in BC and Canada.
Reduce information barriers by connecting stakeholders with resources, tools and data to help them make or facilitate climate-smart investment decisions.
2021-2022: The steering committee
The inaugural steering committee formed by the following members of the UVic community provided valuable guidance and support in the early days of development of the Impact Investing Hub. Their insights and support were very valuable in refining the mission, vision and priorities of the Hub.
