Scaling SDG investing | �۶��Ƶ Germany

Sustainable Development Investments Asset Owner Platform (SDI AOP) has just released their Outcomes dataset, a new data solution that enables investors to track how investments are contributing to sustainable outcomes over time. We look back at how their work has evolved over the last decade when PGGM initially developed the SDI framework with APG to align investments with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The work has and continues to facilitate greater transparency and comparability among investors.

In 2016, PGGM embedded the SDGs in their investment approach with the intention to generate positive social and environmental outcomes alongside financial returns. The implementation involved focusing on themes linked to specific SDGs, creating a targeted investment universe, and emphasizing the need to understand real-world outputs, outcomes, and, where possible, impacts of all investments.

As one of the appointed managers to implement the PGGM vision in listed equities, �۶��Ƶ Asset Management (�۶��Ƶ AM) recognized the need for a data-driven, scientifically informed, and standardized approach to assess the social and environmental outputs, outcomes and, where possible, impacts of investments.

As part of the quest, �۶��Ƶ AM and PGGM collaborated with three leading research universities, and benefited from the contribution of leading corporations, in developing measurement models to determine sustainability contributions. The aim was to integrate academic rigor with practical corporate experience, ensuring that the measurement models were both science-based and tested in the real world. By marrying institutional knowledge with scientific research, the collaboration sought to create a comprehensive methodology for assessing investment outcomes and potential impacts aligned with the SDGs. PGGM and �۶��Ƶ AM have been able to use the developed methodologies for reporting purposes since their inception, while continuing to enhance the models over the years; leveraging new research or data as and when this became available.

One example of such a measurement model is the Annualised Nutrition Density Average (ANDA) model to measure the outcomes of companies with revenues from nutritious foods. The aim was to create a simple model that is easy to understand, allows for aggregation of data and can be scaled up across the supply chain. ANDA is expressed as the number of people that received 100% of their recommended daily nutrition for one year while capping some of the nutrients that can have a negative impact on human health. In short, the model aims to find out how many people have been fully nourished per year due to the food item consumed with investment in company A or B.

The input: nutritious food available i.e. fruits, whole grains, vegetables, etc.
The outcome: increase in nutrition units (coverage of 100% of recommended daily nutrient requirement)
Potential impact: annual improvements in number of people with access to nutritious food, improvements in nutritional value

Despite its success in developing these methodologies, neither PGGM nor �۶��Ƶ AM had the intention to develop such methodologies at scale. This is where, a few years later, the SDI AOP comes in. The platform was essentially born out of the desire of investors to have greater influence over how to interpret the SDG into an investment-useful framework and have relevant data across portfolios. �۶��Ƶ AM was very pleased to collaborate with SDI AOP to contribute to the development of comprehensive outcomes datasets, sharing details of its existing research and methodologies to accelerate standardization.

Standardization and rigor

Over time this initiative has grown into a product, developed by SDI AOP. Where possible SDI AOP has drawn on the experience of specialists at PGGM and �۶��Ƶ AM, who have a track record in assessing outcomes, along with applying the standards and guidance of relevant organisations such as Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), World Benchmarking Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and International Capital Market Association (ICMA). One of the challenges that has been overcome is making the Outcomes dataset useable top down across a capital markets universe, rather than producing bespoke data for specialised impact portfolios.

The work of PGGM and �۶��Ƶ AM in the past 10 years underscores the importance of developing standardized approaches, which are both vetted by the industry and accessible to the broader market. The development of standards should be science-based but practicable in the investment context. Also, it is important that those standards do not encroach upon users’ ability to express their investors’ preferences and values.

Understanding the distinctions between outputs, outcomes, and impacts is crucial for accurate assessment and reporting to improve the models over time. Thankfully, advances in big data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) are contributing to this effort, demonstrating the need for ongoing innovation in this space. Ultimately, achieving measurement success in the long-term requires collaboration across the financial, academic, and corporate sectors.

This effort also paved the way for more companies to report on the positive outcomes and sustainability contributions generated by their own products and services. Additionally, �۶��Ƶ AM was able to engage with companies referring to one measurement standard to encourage them to report on these outcomes as well as focus on enhancing the positive social and environmental outcomes of their products and services.

The importance of transparent and scalable metrics

SDI AOP has spent two years assessing around 100 different products to understand how they can assess the related outputs and outcomes in a consistent way. This drew upon the experience of �۶��Ƶ AM in reviewing corporate disclosures which identified significant variation and gaps in the data currently available in the less established area. One of the key requests from the SDI AOP community was to develop models that overcome both the huge variation in assumptions underlying outcomes metrics that are disclosed, and the limited availability of data provided by listed companies.

In March 2025, SDI AOP released the first version of their new SDI Outcomes dataset. This will be used to help investors target strategies such as contribution to the SDGs in emerging markets, contribution to a portfolio’s net-zero goal, or outcomes in specific themes like water or human health. The dataset is also available as a data stream to be integrated in asset manager systems or on web-based access, to facilitate consistent reporting and track how investments are contributing to sustainable outcomes over time.

As pleased as we are with the SDI Outcomes dataset, we do not believe that this is the end of the matter. No single dataset is perfect and there are always limitations to consider. In this case, the focus is on positive outcomes on people and planet, not on negative outcomes. Additionally, as with most datasets, the trade-off of including more data to gain a complete picture versus ensuring the quality of sources will affect accuracy. Some Outcome metrics are also a work in progress due to strong limitations in availability of the details of the underlying product sold. However, we believe that ongoing engagement with companies will lead to better data coverage and accuracy over time. And for those companies that do collect and self-report on outcomes data, �۶��Ƶ AM will continue to gather this information to have a consolidated overview of outcomes for client reporting to provide transparent insights into investment outcomes.

Ultimately, by fostering collaboration and committing to continuous improvement, the investment industry can drive meaningful change. After all, no company can act alone to ensure capital allocation aligns with the broader goals of sustainability and positive societal outcomes.

¹ The SDI Asset Owner Platform (SDI AOP) is a collaborative initiative among asset owners aiming to standardize the definition and measurement of investments contributing to the SDGs. The platform's purpose is to create a transparent and consistent framework that investors can use to assess the alignment of their portfolios with sustainability outcomes. The SDI AOP has already established the SDI Classification dataset capturing revenues derived from sustainable products and services which is the starting point for understanding related outputs and outcomes in the new SDI Outcomes product.

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