Posted on September 22, 2011

Ratings and Analytics Platform for Impact Investing Launched

B Lab, a nonprofit organization that certifies B Corporations, has announced the launch of GIIRS Ratings and Analytics and a commitment by fifteen GIIRS Pioneer Investors to give preference to GIIRS-rated funds and companies as part of their impact investing strategy.

Launched at the seventh annual Clinton Global Initiative meeting, the GIIRS platform is designed to give investors powerful tools to analyze aggregated, verified, and comparable data on the social and environmental impact of companies and funds by geography, sector, organizational maturity, and size. Among the investors that have committed to using the platform are mainstream financial institutions, social finance leaders, a multilateral development bank, and a number of private philanthropies, including the Annie E. Casey, Calvert, Kellogg, Rockefeller, and Skoll foundations.

Deloitte, Prudential Financial, and the Rockefeller Foundation have contributed a total of $9 million in funding, products, and services to accelerate industry adoption of the GIIRS platform.

"Earlier this year we were lead investor in an innovative new technology platform to create an automated infrastructure to monitor impact investments," said Ommeed Sathe, director of social investments at Prudential. "This and our groundbreaking work with GIIRS and B-Lab underscores our commitment to creating an investment infrastructure that will nurture the growth of the entire impact investing field."