Impact Investing – For the good purpose – economy

The world was rarely so United as on this weekend of September in the year of 2015. At the time, all 193 member States of the United Nations, adopted unanimously, 17 common sustainability criteria, neatly broken down into 169 sub-points. Three years had taken their preparation before. It was a good day for the Confederation of States. Of a new Era in the UN language in the face of global Unity. Paper is patient, and the end of the world five years after the Meeting in New York is still far away, to adapt sustainability as a key motive for Action of all the economic, political and social processes. But without a doubt, the awareness for the relevance of increased sustainable development, and the number of ideas on how to reach them, is enormous. It is not only all.

The financial sector is assigned a crucial role in the acceleration of the integration process: It collects the capital and distributed it again. If it succeeds the financial sector and the industry is willing to promote primarily where the social and ecological added value for a company is felt, would probably have already achieved a lot. The European Union wants to promote sustainable Investment, by classified products for the consumer, visible and simple. But here, too, patience is required. It is shown that the implementation of sustainable policies is much more difficult than to agree on it. The biggest challenge is to ensure the economic interests of sustainability. However, there are increasingly many of the players who are trying to do and also successfully therefore. To be “green, does not mean that you can’t grow,” says Markus mouse. He is the founder of the Company Bike. The company offers corporate Bicycle fleets, so that they can motivate their staff to work for the exchange from the car to the Bicycle. “The starting point of our Consideration was to combine three aspects: mobility, health, and employee retention. With our Monk-Leasing-concept, we have grown in the past five years, significantly stronger than the bike market,” says mouse.

Company Bike conveys to employees about the company’s management, a desire to bike, to buy this instead of a lease fee for three years – for the journey to work or even in private. Ten locations the company has in Germany and taking care of 3500 customer sites. “We supply the wheels, we are waiting for you and we handle the leasing business, if an employee from the company outlet,” said mouse. It is up to the employer of the rider, whether he takes on the costs of the offer completely or only a part of the leasing rate or a subsidy there.

“We were surprised and delighted by the demand of our workforce. As a company, it gives us the feeling to be able to a grant for the leasing business is already a big difference and promote sustainability,” says Britta Schumacher from the family company, Pfeifer & Langen, a sugar manufacturer from Cologne.

Employees who move a lot, are more powerful and more satisfied and be less sick, as scientific studies show. In the case of the family business, which employs more than 2,400 employees and 800 million euros in sales, have already ordered about 15 per cent of the employees bikes Company Bike. Other employees are on a waiting list.

Business models, such as the Company Bike are generally of interest to investors, the venture capital to collect, to invest it for their customers for a set period of time in companies which promise in addition to a financial return and a social value. Not all Fund providers to set strict standards for their investments. Donors for social business Global Partnerships (Social Venture Fund), for example. Also, Tengelmann Social Ventures of the eponymous retail group, Ananda Impact Ventures, or the Munich-based investment Fund company Bonventure offer financing. Often, the companies must be able to demonstrate concrete social goals, in order to get a financing. 2014 Markus mouse presented his concept in the case of Bonventure and began only then to study in depth sustainability deal, he says. In order to be of Bonventure funded, will require the appropriate parameters to be able to ecological or social effect was demonstrated. It was not enough for the Investor, Company Bike helped other businesses to provide their employees an Extra available. “We had to clearly identify how lower carbon emissions can we achieve with our model. This was the Central demand of us.” After a year of discussions and negotiations, the partnership was perfect and the Bonventure Fund III, which will run until 2023, participated in Company Bike.

Less sick days, less pollutants, more motivated workforce: ready for the perfect sustainability seems to be a model. But the reality is different. Because companies, such as Company Bike are not in the position to guarantee a fully sustainable value creation. That would be the case if the production of the bikes would meet the criteria of the UN is a mammoth task.

“In such a globalised value chain, such as in the Bicycle industry, it is, in my view, currently, for the customers of the products impossible to test all of the components and the background of their emergence on sustainability,” says mouse. The costs would explode and the entire business model is inefficient to make. Investors would be deterred. Probably those who do not want to maximize returns at any cost.