Schroders' acquisition of Switzerland-based impact investor BlueOrchard has proved to be transformative for the London-listed asset manager, according to Catherine Macaulay, who has been at the forefront of integrating its expertise.

Macaulay joined Schroders in 2020, a year after the acquisition, and has worked closely with BlueOrchard to apply its approaches more broadly across Schroders.

As impact investment lead at Schroders, she has been instrumental in building the firm's cross-asset class impact framework and impact offering, including the launch of more than 10 new impact strategies over the past 18 months across listed equity, listed debt, private equity, private debt and private asset solutions.

As part of this process, Macaulay led the development of a cross asset-class impact management and measurement framework (IMM), which she says has been core to Schroders' ability to scale impact across asset classes with integrity.

She works closely with the fund teams and co-chairs the Impact Assessment Group (IAG), Schroders' impact governance body that assesses the impact potential for every potential impact investment to provide independent impact insight and oversight.

Impact is now "core" to Schroders' approach, she tells Environmental Finance. "Five years ago, you wouldn’t have necessarily associated Schroders with impact investing, but the journey we have been on with BlueOrchard has totally transformed that, and we have now built out a cross-asset class impact fund range.”

Macaulay is proud to have led the firm through its first independent external verification of its alignment with the Operating Principles for Impact Management with independent impact verifier Bluemark. Schroders' impact verification results have earned it a place on Bluemark's Practice Leaderboard, which spotlights 11 industry leaders that are pushing the impact investing industry forward.

She is optimistic about the future of impact investing, as it can be an "antidote" to the allegations of greenwashing that dog the sustainable finance market.

As a result, impact investing is "about to be on a wave", she believes. "We are starting to see more client interest in impact. The rigour of impact will be able to weather all the regulatory headwinds and give investors confidence in what their money is doing."

She works closely with prospective impact fund managers that are interested in launching an impact fund through Schroders' Impact Incubator to establish a theory of change, refine core impact areas of focus, impact objectives and associated KPIs at the portfolio level, and to embed the consistent application of the Impact Toolkit within the investment processes of all Schroders impact funds.

Macaulay is also optimistic about the impact of the forthcoming Sustainable Disclosure Requirements in the UK, particularly its impact label.

“Personally, I think it’s a positive development,” she argues, pointing to the fact that it asks investors to outline their ‘theory of change’. “It should help bring more clarity to the impact market.” 

“In the same way that the EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation has reverberated beyond Europe, there’s a possibility that this regulation could have an impact beyond its borders.”