Press Release
Calvert Impact affirms alignment with Impact Principles, receives Advanced ratings in independent verification
May 17, 2023 | Bethesda, MD
(24-7 Press Release) Calvert Impact announced today that it has affirmed its adherence to the Operating Principles for Impact Management and received Advanced ratings in all the Impact Principles from a leading independent verification provider for its flagship Community Investment Note® portfolio. Calvert Impact is a founding signatory to the Impact Principles, which call on firms to disclose and affirm their impact measurement and management (IMM) practices annually and to periodically submit to independent verification, thereby ensuring accurate and transparent disclosures and mitigating impact washing.
In the verification process, which was conducted by BlueMark, the Community Investment Note® portfolio earned Advanced ratings across all eight Impact Principles, earning the firm a spot on BlueMark’s Practice Leaderboard. The Leaderboard highlights impact investors with “best-in-class” impact management practices who received top quartile ratings across all the Impact Principles.
“I couldn’t be prouder of this achievement” said Jennifer Pryce, Calvert Impact CEO. “We’ve sought to manage our Community Investment Note portfolio with impact management best practices throughout our history. Earning Advanced scores across all principles is something only a handful of investors have achieved and is a testament to our decades-long commitment and the hard work of our Investments and IMM teams.”
The BlueMark verification emphasized the strength of the Community Investment Note portfolio’s clearly defined impact strategy, the success of Calvert Impact’s proprietary Impact Scorecard as a standardized tool to assess expected impact in communities as well as its investor contribution, the strength of the annual impact monitoring process, and Calvert Impact’s clear approach to considering and documenting sustained impact at the exit or repayment stage. It also noted Calvert Impact’s dedication to an active learning approach that identifies best-in-class practices and incorporates these new standards into its work.
More on Calvert Impact’s commitment to IMM best practices can be found in the firm’s fourth annual Disclosure Statement.