The Vancouver Island Impact Investing Hub

Supported by the online platform coming in 2022, the hub’s main activities fall under three categories:

• Education and capacity building (Learning hub)
• Collaborative research and thought leadership (Collaboration hub)
• Stakeholder engagement (Connection/Data hub)

And span three interconnected focus areas of sustainable investing:

• Climate Finance. Accelerate investments in green economy solutions such as cleantech, clean energy and nature-based solutions for climate change mitigation and adaptation.
• Transition Finance. Support businesses and other organizations to attract the capital they need to align their business models and/or operations with Canada’s transition to net zero.
• Inclusive Finance. Bring awareness and help address inequalities in access to finance. These include Indigenous, racial, gender and other diversity gaps in financial markets, to align with the UN SDGs.

To learn more about the impact hub platform or to become a beta user, contact vi3hubpm@uvic.ca.

The hub connects the academic community at the University of Victoria to a wide range of partners who play a role in the impact investing ecosystem, including: investors of all types, entrepreneurs, start-up incubators and accelerators, businesses, government and policy makers, non-profits, and community organizations. The hub also strives to create collaboration opportunities with academics and students in other universities in BC, Canada and globally.

The hub was built to help mobilize investments in solutions to one of the most pressing challenges confronting the world today: climate change. While global action is needed, localized action is essential to tackle the existing gaps:

• Funding for climate-impact entrepreneurs and businesses is insufficient to accelerate the necessary transition to a net-zero economy.
• Private investors lack education and capacity to mobilize more capital into the climate-smart economy. Those who want to make impact investments in climate solutions cannot easily access information on available opportunities and other resources and data they need for decision-making.
• Stakeholders need a central hub to connect, collaborate, access resources and build knowledge to make climate-smart investment decisions and avoid greenwashing.

The impact investing hub initiative is led by the Gustavson School of Business, in collaboration with faculty members from engineering and computer science, geography, public administration, economics and other departments. The hub also leverages expertise from the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions, Ocean Networks Canada and UVic Coast Capital Savings Innovation Centre. Our extended engagement team is composed of industry, government, community organizations, investors, accelerators/incubators and core partners.

The Steering Committee is currently comprised of the following members:

• Basma Majerbi, Gustavson School of Business (Project Lead and Committee Chair)
• Lynn Works, Gustavson School of Business (Project Manager and Committee Vice-Chair)
• Andrew Coward, University of Victoria Treasurer
• Daniela Damian, Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science
• Tristan Denniston, UVic External relations
• Jerome Etwaroo, Coast Capital Savings Innovation Centre
• Kristy Faccer, Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions
• Adel Guitouni, Gustavson School of Business
• Jennifer Kwan, UVic Communications and Marketing
• Cheryl Mitchell, Gustavson School of Business
• Paul Schure, Faculty of Social Sciences, Economics
• Crystal Tremblay, Faculty of Social Sciences, Geography