Lana Wang, Executive Secretary General of CASVI Shared at UNPF Global Dialogues Serial Webinars

Author:CASVI

On November 3rd, 2021, Lana Wang, Executive Secretary General of CASVI shared at the "Global Dialogues Serial Webinars - Common Future and Social Responsibility for Sustainable Development." The forum was hosted by UNPF (United Nations Population Fund) China office and the World Youth Innovation Center. The webinar explored China's actions and thoughts on achieving UN SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) from the perspectives of social corporation responsibility, finance, and economy.

Who is CASVI?

Good evening, everyone. Thanks for your invitation and your attention to a new public welfare organization. This is my great honor to share our practice on behalf of China Alliance of Social Value Investment (CASVI). CASVI was jointly initiated by more than 50 institutions and registered in Shenzhen in 2016. It is the first international NGO focuses on sustainable development finance in China. CASVI was certified as the "5A Social Organization" in 2020. In order to achieve the mission of "Doing Well and Doing Good, Investing For A Better World," and promote financial forces to help achieve UN SDGs, CASVI works to see from three dimensions: Standard R&D, Platform Building, and Advocating for ESG Value.

Standard R&D:

Sustainable Development Value Assessment System

In terms of Standard R&D, CASVI has built a quantitative evaluation system of sustainable development value. The core of the evaluation system takes three aspects: driving force, innovation force, and transformation force, into consideration for evaluating the integrated economic, social, and environmental (ESG) values created by an organization.

At present, the "Social Value 99" ("SV 99") project for listed companies has already received a good response from the market. In 2020, CASVI and Bosera Fund co-developedthe "CSI SD-100ETF," and it was listed and traded on Shanghai Stock Exchange. Since then, CASVI has accumulated 9-years data on CSI 300 listed companies with support from experts and the volunteering team.

In addition, CASVI also has sustainable development value evaluation for start-up projects. For now, the evaluation mainly helpsthe project screening and evaluationprocess of our SDGs Entrepreneurship Accelerator (SEA) program. In the future, we will also optimize it with the hope that the sustainable development value evaluation standard of start-up projects can truly achieve mutual benefit.

Platform Building:

Gather Investors and Investment Targets to Promote Sustainable Development

CASVI, cooperating with forces from all walks of life, launched SEA, Sustainable Development Investor Lab, and SDG Expert Seminar to build a multi-dimensional platform focusing on promoting sustainable development investors and investment targets.

SDGs Entrepreneurship Accelerator (SEA)

To start with, let's talk about SEA. SEA is a key project launched by CASVI to empower social entrepreneurs and link them to those investors who are focusing on solving social problems. Since 2018, CASVI has successfully held SEA for four consecutive years. In 2018, we went to Singularity University with some entrepreneurs and hoped they could pay attention to the solution to social problems by using science and technology. In 2021, under the guidance of Shenzhen Ecological Environment Bureau, we jointly held the firstentrepreneurshipcompetition, which focused on "carbon neutralization." The competition received public welfare support from many experts, industrial investment partners, and incubation partners. About 70 experts contributed 300 hours for public welfare activity, and more than 30 investors participated in the project screening and gave feedbackthroughout the competition. Industrial partners such as McKinsey provided free consulting service; industrial partners such as Landsea real estate, Kangbao electric appliance, and Hyundai Automobile provided insider feedback to the participating projects. More than 200 projects registered for the competition, 18of them entered the final round. In the end, the competition reached more than 3 millionviews on diverse media platforms.

In terms of the project screening and selection, CASVI focuses more on angel round to A round start-ups that are committed to solving social problems through science and technology. Most of them already have real market applications, such as Voibook, a project committed to improving the communication situation of hearing-impaired groups through artificial intelligence technology. In March next year, CASVI will host its fifth SEA. Based on the past four-year accumulation of experience, our choice of fields will be more specific. In the future, we will concentrate on projects that focus on carbon neutralization, accessibility, and inclusion.

Sustainable Development Investor Lab

In order to advocate sustainable development value and concept among investors, we launched the investment practice room in 2018 and upgraded to the Sustainable Development Investor Lab in 2020. Under the guidance of Shenzhen Financial Bureau, CASVI, together with China Development Research Foundation, China Responsible Investment Forum, and the National Development Research Institute of Peking University, jointly launched the ESG Investment Frontier Forum. The forum is held once a month in Shenzhen and Beijing. By far, 13 sessions have been held. The government, financial institutions, third-party organizations, listed companies, and research institutions have been invited to participate, and the forum have reached nearly 5 million views and invited with more than 1000 participants.

SDG Expert Seminar

In order to promote the exchange among experts, CASVI launched an close-door sharing session for experts and members. Therefore, we launched SDG Expert Seminar (online series) in April 2020. At present, more than 40 experts have participated, and they have contributed over 200 public welfare hours. CASVI has also set up a mechanism of Time Bank and SDG probono think tank. The public welfare contribution time of experts can be used to exchange interests specially offered by CASVI.

Sustainable Development Summit

As an organization with a strong research capability, CASVI collaborates with Caijing Magazine on the annual Sustainable Development Summit and Caijing Award. Through rigorous research, CASVI helps to discover outstanding domestic ESG cases and advocates sustainable development practices in China.

Advocating for ESG Value :

Enhance the comprehensive value of ESG

CASVI has done a lot of ESG research, especially when the market was unfamiliar with the concept of ESG at the beginning. Moreover, we have also done a lot of joint research with the UNDP, the UNICEF, Asset Management Association of China, Shenzhen Financial Office, and other institutions. In 2020, together with the China Development Research Foundation, we carried out "Research Summary on ESG policies and regulations." The research will also be published books in the future. Please look forward to it.

In order to better link experts from the government, business, social, and academic circles, CASVI also jointly launched the "Sustainable Development Financial Innovation Experiment" project with the National Development Research Institute of Peking University. We jointly authored the monthly report "Sustainable Development Finance Frontiers." The report includes monthly global sustainable development financial products, practice, and research insights, and it is also translated into English for the overseas audience. Furthermore, CASVI has been continuely releasing "Discovering China' Social Value 99'- A-share Listed Company Social Value Assessment" for the past 4 years. I am happy to share that our report won the "China Soft Science Award - Special Award" in this year.

In order to better advocate for ESG Value, CASVI has built a complete communication channel in the combined form of self-run media and professional media. CASVI's public WeChat account, LinkedIn, Twitter, Weibo, and the official websites gradually become a landmark content in the field of sustainable development finance.

Additionally, CASVI has gradually established an international cooperation network. CASVI has been invited to participate in international conferences such as the UN General Assembly, the World Economic Forum, and the GSG Global Impact Investment Summit to promote China's ESG achievements and opportunities.

Epilogue

Since 2016, we have seen many exciting changes in the field of sustainable development. More and more enterprises have begun to contribute back to society by taking ESG into account throughout their business development. More and more investors have begun to pay attention to start-ups that solve social issues and promote sustainable development. More and more young people are now willing to join NGOs such as CASVI. It is expected that more forces from policy to market will contribute to the realization of UN SDGs.

Representing CASVI, I sincerely welcome all of you to cooperate with us in the future. I look forward to your company for achieving the mission of "Doing Well and Doing Good, Investing For A Better World!"

Article classification: Alliance News 机构动态 Member News