As rules on ESG disclosure tighten and AI systems spread across financial markets, sustainable finance is under pressure to move beyond box-ticking. This analysis, based on a live session jointly hosted by the Global Impact Alliance and the Swiss Impact Investing Association, outlines five “forces for good” that can help investors and ecosystem builders shift from fragmented compliance to systemic impact.

Over the past few years, ESG regulation has accelerated—from the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) [1] to the new IFRS sustainability standards [2]. At the same time, artificial intelligence is rapidly changing how capital is analyzed, allocated, and monitored. AI now screens vast quantities of unstructured information, flags greenwashing risks, and supports scenario analysis. Yet, without clear purpose and governance, it can just as easily amplify noise and bias.

During a live session in September 2025, five practitioners—Christian Kingombe, Joseph Naayem, Diana Rose, Yulia Koroleva, and Victoria Le Fur—explored how to navigate this new landscape. Their insights converge around five interdependent forces: network power and ecosystems; double materiality and investment design; responsible AI; inclusive leadership; and systems-level synthesis. Taken together, these forces offer investors, regulators, and ecosystem builders a practical way to move from scattered ESG initiatives toward coherent, shared impact.

This analysis draws on the fully recorded and transcribed 2025 session and is complemented by recent literature on systems thinking, impact investing, digital ethics, and inclusive leadership [3].

Network Power: From Fragmented Initiatives to Real Ecosystems

This perspective was developed by Dr. Christian Kingombe, Managing Partner at 4IP Group, General Partner at Invisible Heart Ventures (IHV2), Accredited SDG Impact Standards Trainer, and Board Member of the Swiss Impact Investment Association.

Fragmented initiatives in sustainable finance can transform into true capital ecosystems when they are supported by shared data infrastructure and long-term trust networks. As Dr. Christian Kingombe highlighted during the session, the future of impact finance will not be shaped by individual actors but by the “network power” created when investors, entrepreneurs, corporates, and institutions collaborate through common digital frameworks [3].

Historically, the impact economy has struggled with structural fragmentation: disconnected funding schemes, low visibility for SMEs, and parallel pilot projects that rarely scale. This has created inefficiencies, duplicated efforts, and limited investor confidence. New digital platforms are now addressing these gaps by enabling continuous collaboration across sectors.

One example is Reown, a regenerative communication platform developed by AxessImpact and Bolder [4]. Unlike traditional matchmaking portals, Reown functions as “connective tissue” for the impact ecosystem. It allows users to control their data, builds transparent channels for engagement before and after major events, and integrates AI-powered assistants that learn from user interactions. This turns short networking moments into ongoing collaboration, strengthening community intelligence and reducing transaction costs.

As Dr. Kingombe noted, “networking creates contacts, but widespread collaboration creates commitments.” Shared infrastructures can turn transparency, accountability, and trust into public goods rather than competitive advantages. For investors and policymakers, this represents a shift away from fragmented reporting and toward coordinated capital flows aligned with verified impact data and co-created standards.

With AI, blockchain, and big data analytics accelerating, network power becomes both a governance mechanism and an efficiency driver. Integrated digital ecosystems make it easier to identify bottlenecks, direct capital to solutions, monitor progress, and scale successful models. In the emerging “Beyond ESG” landscape, this is the foundation for moving from isolated actions toward systemic impact.

Designing Capital with Purpose: Double Materiality in Investment Strategy

Insights in this section were provided by Joseph Naayem, a sustainable finance expert and Managing Partner at Kalmus Capital, with deep experience in ESG integration, impact investing, and innovative investment structures.

Double materiality is reshaping sustainable finance by reframing investors not as passive allocators of capital but as active agents of systems transformation. As Joseph Naayem explained during the session, the traditional “outside-in” ESG lens—assessing how environmental or social risks influence financial returns—is no longer sufficient. The emerging “inside-out” view asks an equally important question: how does capital deployment shape real-world outcomes? Together, these two perspectives redefine what it means to design investment strategies with purpose [3].

Regulation has already moved ahead of industry mindsets. The EU Taxonomy and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) now require companies to disclose both financial and impact materiality. IFRS S1 and S2 set similar expectations for transparency, governance, and comparability. Yet many asset managers still operate within a linear model focused on asset classes rather than outcomes. This limits their ability to meaningfully contribute to climate resilience, social equity, or circularity.

According to Naayem, transitioning toward double materiality requires inverting the investment process itself. Instead of starting from asset classes, investors begin with a problem statement:

• What systemic challenge are we trying to address?
• Which technologies, business models, and policies form the solution space?
• Where are the bottlenecks and leverage points?
• Who gains, who loses, and how do incentives align?

Only then do investors decide which financial instruments—equity, credit, blended finance, guarantees, digital assets, or public–private structures—are best suited to the task. Asset allocation becomes a design choice shaped by purpose rather than a starting assumption.

Naayem illustrated this shift through the example of the plastics transition. Plastics are deeply embedded in the global economy but drive emissions, waste, and pollution. Treating the issue as “reduce plastic and buy greener companies” ignores structural realities. A systems approach requires rethinking upstream feedstock, scaling sustainable alternatives, and engaging petrochemical players in economic transition pathways. Solutions that look promising in isolation often fall short at systemic scale. Purpose-led design connects the entire value chain and orchestrates the right mix of capital tools to unlock real progress.

Seen through this lens, double materiality is not a compliance exercise — it is a strategic framework for shaping mandates, products, and portfolios. It requires investors to articulate the challenges they want to solve, map the mechanisms through which their capital can contribute, and build feedback loops that link impact back to risk and return. Finance becomes not only a noun but a verb: the active process of financing what matters.

Can AI Strengthen ESG? Why Traceability and Ethical Design Matter

This analysis is based on insights from Diana Rose, Head of ESG Research at Insig AI and a leading specialist in the application of AI to sustainability reporting and corporate responsibility.

Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming how companies gather, verify, and report sustainability information. As Diana Rose highlighted, AI can dramatically accelerate ESG workflows — but only when systems are designed for traceability, auditability, and ethical oversight [3][5]. Without these safeguards, automation can just as easily undermine trust as enhance it.

Generative AI models are now capable of scanning large volumes of unstructured data — from PDF sustainability reports to regulatory guidance — and identifying whether disclosures meet detailed criteria such as those defined by CSRD [1] in Europe or ISSB [2] globally. This can reduce the repetitive manual work traditionally done by analysts, improve benchmarking, and free up human capacity for more strategic decision-making.

But speed alone does not create reliability. For AI to genuinely strengthen ESG assurance, organizations must ensure that:

• The source data is high quality and clearly structured,
• Prompts and model use are supervised by subject-matter experts,
• Outputs are explainable, easy to validate, and auditable,
• Every automated step has a human in the loop.

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), for example, uses AI tools to triage sustainability disclosures at scale and detect common greenwashing patterns by comparing company statements across reports and against external signals [6]. This combination of technology and human oversight improves the regulator’s ability to enforce credibility and consistency in the market.

Yet even well-designed tools require responsible governance. Rose emphasized that organizations should treat generative AI “like a precocious intern”: highly capable and fast, but never unsupervised [7]. Accountability cannot shift to machines — “AI told me” is not a defense for poor judgment or inaccurate reporting. Clear policies on confidentiality, training, risk thresholds, and decision-making boundaries are essential for safe use.

For leaders, becoming “AI-ready” means building strong foundations: trusted data, transparent governance, clear purpose, and cross-team education. There are many clever things AI can do, but also many ways to waste time, money, and reputation if systems are deployed without intention. Responsible adoption requires iteration, learning, and collaboration with partners who share ethical principles but challenge organizations to innovate.

Used thoughtfully, AI can enhance the credibility of ESG data rather than dilute it — helping sustainable finance evolve toward greater transparency, accuracy, and resilience.

Inclusive Leadership: Why Gender-Lens Investing Unlocks Systemic Innovation

This section draws on contributions from Victoria Le Fur, a gender-lens investing practitioner with advanced experience designing programs that bridge business, social impact, and women’s economic empowerment.

Inclusive leadership is emerging as one of the strongest drivers of innovation in impact ecosystems—not only as a moral imperative but as a strategic advantage. As Victoria Le Fur emphasized, women entrepreneurs remain significantly underfunded not because of a lack of talent or ambition, but because of structural barriers built into investment networks, leadership models, and cultural norms [8].

Globally, women-led enterprises receive less than 3% of total venture capital [8]. This gap reflects persistent biases: women founders are often judged as “riskier,” “less scalable,” or “too small,” despite evidence that women-led companies consistently deliver strong returns and greater long-term resilience. These biases are reinforced by limited access to investor networks, closed circles of trust, and a lack of visible role models in positions of financial power.

The implications go far beyond fairness. When half of the world’s entrepreneurial talent is underfunded, entire sectors lose innovation potential. Economies miss out on new business models, community solutions, and inclusive technologies that could strengthen progress toward the SDGs.

Gender-lens investing addresses this gap through intentional design. It asks investors to examine how leadership teams are structured, who has access to capital, and how investment processes unintentionally exclude diverse founders. Practical interventions include:

• Redesigning pitching processes to reduce bias,
• Building gender-balanced investment committees,
• Creating dedicated mentorship and accelerator pathways,
• Actively showcasing women-led success stories to shift collective narratives.

Visibility is particularly powerful. When women see other women raising capital, leading funds, and scaling impact ventures, confidence rises, and so does investor appetite. Inclusion becomes a positive feedback loop: more representation generates more investment, which generates more success and, ultimately, more systemic change.

This evolution in leadership is about economic intelligence as much as equity. Diversity strengthens resilience, improves decision-making, and broadens the range of solutions entering the market. Empowering women through gender-lens investing is therefore not simply correcting a historic imbalance—it is unlocking underutilized innovation capacity across the entire impact ecosystem.

By embedding inclusion into leadership design, investors, policymakers, and ecosystem builders can accelerate impact, strengthen performance, and build more legitimate, future-ready systems.

Bringing the Five Forces Together: A Systems View

The integrative framework presented here is guided by Yulia Koroleva, Head of Sustainability at the Global Impact Alliance (GIA), and a sustainability strategist with experience across business, media, and academia.

Moderating the session, Yulia Koroleva highlighted that the real opportunity in sustainable finance lies not in individual tools but in the intersections between them. Across the discussion, it became clear that the five forces gain power when they reinforce one another. Network ecosystems provide the connective infrastructure for collaboration. Double materiality gives direction by reframing capital as a lever for systemic outcomes. Responsible AI strengthens credibility and the ability to manage complexity. Inclusive leadership anchors decisions in legitimacy, creativity, and purpose.

Together, these elements form a dynamic loop: data feeds purpose → purpose shapes technology → technology amplifies human judgment → leadership ensures values and direction. When these forces reinforce each other, sustainable finance becomes a living, adaptive architecture capable of coordinating collective impact rather than producing disconnected ESG actions.

From Compliance to Co-Creation in the Age of AI

The insights emerging from this session point to a practical roadmap for shifting sustainable finance beyond compliance. For investors, the challenge is to move from ESG scoring toward problem-led portfolio design—guided by long-term outcomes, transmission mechanisms, and systemic contributions. For regulators, the growing use of AI underscores the need for traceability, accountability, and ethical oversight to maintain trust in sustainability disclosures. For ecosystem builders, shared digital platforms, blended finance structures, and cross-sector collaboration offer the infrastructure needed to scale solutions and reduce fragmentation.

The transition will not be free of challenges. Adoption of double materiality remains uneven, digital tools require thoughtful governance, and leadership gaps persist—especially around inclusion and representation. But the direction of travel is clear: sustainable finance is evolving from a reporting exercise into a system of co-creation, where capital, data, technology, and human agency interact in new ways.

Ultimately, moving “beyond ESG” means rediscovering finance as a verb—the active practice of financing what matters, aligning incentives across sectors, and building resilient systems in the face of climate, social, and technological complexity. By embracing the five forces together, investors and policymakers can help shape a future in which transparency, innovation, and inclusion reinforce one another, enabling sustainable finance to deliver real, collective impact.

[1] European Commission, “Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD),” 2023.

[2] IFRS Foundation, “IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 Sustainability Disclosure Standards,” 2023.

[3] GIA & SIIA, “Beyond ESG: From Compliance to Impact in the Age of AI”—Session Recording, September 2025.

[4] AxessImpact & Bolder, “Reown: Regenerative Communication Platform for the Impact Economy,” 2025.

[5] OECD, “OECD AI Principles,” 2023.

[6] UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), “Anti-Greenwashing Rule: Finalised Guidance FG24/3,” 2024.

[7] Falcon Windsor & Insig AI, “Your Precocious Intern: How to Use Generative AI Responsibly in Corporate Reporting,” 2025.

[8] UN Women, “Gender-Lens Investing: Financing Equality and Innovation,” 2022.