The Institute for Corporate Governance in the German Real Estate Industry (ICG) has launched the “Social Impact Hub” as part of its commitment to social impact investing. For the first time, the digital platform creates a central place for the visibility, networking and further development of real estate projects with social and societal impact. In addition, the hub opens up new opportunities to initiate sustainable business relationships and initiate sustainable investments, even in a challenging market environment.
The “Social Impact Hub” was created as a project of the ICG’s Social Impact Investing (SII) initiative and pursues two central goals: On the one hand, best practice examples of impact real estate projects are bundled and made accessible and transparent for the industry. On the other hand, the platform acts as a digital marketplace where offers and requests – for example for space, financing or services – as well as experienced project partners are brought together in a targeted manner. This creates concrete access to new investment opportunities, project partnerships and sustainable business models in the field of socially effective real estate.
Dr. Pamela Hoerr, board member and head of the SII Social Impact Hub working group: “With the ́Social Impact Hub ́, we are creating a central point of contact for all market participants at stakeholder and shareholder side who want to actively promote social impact in the real estate industry. Transparency, visibility and networking are crucial levers for further establishing impact investing in the industry and at the same time enabling economically viable collaborations and investments.”
The platform is aimed at companies, investors, project developers and service providers in the real estate sector who want to get involved in the area of social impact or implement corresponding projects. On the other hand, stakeholders such as cities and municipalities, social agencies or even users can post their own projects, search for suitable partners and get in touch directly with each other and the industry. Especially in a challenging market environment, the hub thus offers a structured opportunity to identify like-minded business partners, attract investors and successfully implement projects.
Sebastian Kreutel, Partner at ICG member PwC, who supported the expansion of the hub: “Impact-oriented real estate projects are becoming increasingly important – at the same time, there is often a lack of visibility and access to the right partners. The ‘Social Impact Hub’ closes precisely this gap and makes it easier for investors and project promoters to jointly develop sustainable solutions. It will be great to see how with the help of the hub, social impact can be further broadened and new ones, how existing stakeholders can be mobilized to present, finance, invest and ultimately realize relevant solutions.”
At the start, use is free of charge for all interested parties. In the future, it is planned that companies in the real estate industry will pay for the use of the hub, while stakeholders will continue to be able to participate free of charge.
Karin Barthelmes-Wehr, Managing Director of the ICG: “The ‘Social Impact Hub’ is an important step towards anchoring the topic of social sustainability – the ‘S’ in ESG – more firmly in the real estate industry. In this way, we not only create transparency about existing initiatives, but also actively promote new collaborations and projects and support the industry in combining social impact and economic success in a meaningful way.”
With the “Social Impact Hub”, the ICG underlines its role as a driving force for responsible corporate governance and sustainable transformation in the real estate industry.
You can find the hub at https://sii-initiative.de/impact-hub/.
