White Oak Global Advisors announced its adoption of Impact Rate of Return®, a comprehensive impact analytics system provided by Global Impact LLC.

Global Impact, led by its President Howard W. Buffett, will guide the effort as White Oak’s newest advisor. As an award-winning author and professor, Buffett is an expert in impact measurement, management, and analysis, and will be collaborating with White Oak’s Head of ESG and Impact, Terésa Cutter, to develop impact metrics that are relevant to the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR).

Global Impact is an advisory firm that has been serving public, private, and philanthropic sector organizations for over a decade.

“We are excited to welcome Global Impact as an advisor, given Howard’s well-regarded expertise in the space,” said Roksana Ciurysek-Gedir, Chairperson of White Oak’s Impact Advisory Board and consultant to White Oak. “Global Impact and White Oak are both longstanding players and active participants in the ESG and impact marketplace, and I’m certain it will be a fruitful partnership.”

The SFDR is designed to help institutional asset owners and retail clients understand, compare, and monitor the sustainability characteristics of investment funds by standardizing sustainability disclosures. Under the SFDR, firms must make both firm and product-level disclosures about the integration of sustainability risks, the consideration of adverse sustainability impacts, the promotion of environmental or social factors, and sustainable investment objectives.

Cutter added, “With Howard’s innovative and multi-dimensional approach to performance measurement and management, we are now even better positioned to offer reporting solutions that are SFDR-aligned, as well as provide greater transparency and measurability around the impact of White Oak’s investments.”

White Oak (together with and through its financing affiliates) has invested $4.2 billion in ESG-aligned investments since 2013. The firm stands out for its long-term commitment to ESG and impact investing at a time when public equity and fixed income dominate the finance industry’s advances in ESG investing. The firm’s impact strategy focuses on secured loan lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and is committed to providing products and services that create positive environmental and social impact while building economically sustainable businesses.

“White Oak is ahead of the curve when it comes to building ESG solutions within private debt markets,” said Buffett. “I look forward to working with such an established team of advisors and to helping guide the company’s ESG and impact efforts.”

Buffett is a Professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and serves on the Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing for the university’s $14 billion endowment. In 2018, he co-authored the award-winning book Social Value Investing: A Management Framework for Effective Partnerships, in which he outlined the Impact Rate of Return® methodology that offers new ways to measure, analyze, and report on social and environmental impact. He is also a member of several corporate boards where he has directed efforts on ESG and sustainability strategies.