Looking back at the Toronto roundtable

The SDI AOP - together with BCI and distribution partner Qontigo – hosted another engaging roundtable, this time in Toronto. 

With a room filled with institutional asset managers, banks, and asset owners, attendees sparked a diverse conversation on trends and common challenges around integrating SDGs and measuring positive contributions, and how the AOP founders like PGGM, APG and BCI are accelerating adoption of the asset-owner governed taxonomy.

Participants exchanged views around challenges in sourcing suitable datasets to fulfill sustainable objectives, decomposing risk and impact while measuring progress of outcomes, and ultimately translating SDGs and other sustainable investment frameworks into a common language that global investors can understand and leverage throughout the investment process.

The CEO of PGGM Investment - Geraldine Leegwater - together with Hans Op t Veld, BCI’s Jennifer Coulson, APG’s Tara Jane Fraser and the SDI AOP’s research director James Leaton, in turn, provided insights into how the AOP translates SDGs into actionable investments, the construction and governance of the taxonomy’s methodology and ongoing research efforts, the driving motivation behind forming an asset owner-led initiative and network highlighting the importance of the asset owner lens, new features like the SDI Dashboard, and forthcoming enhancements to the platform.  

The hosts also described how current members – including PGGM, APG, and BCI themselves – leverage the taxonomy across asset classes and various use cases, from engagement to portfolio construction to sustainable investments reporting.