Click the country names to discover how our global holdings are delivering impact.
‘Leave no one behind’ – that’s the pledge adopted by the United Nations’ 193 member states in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
This commitment highlights the importance of addressing social exclusion. While living standards, literacy rates and life expectancy have been improving for centuries, they are not evenly distributed across the globe or within countries.
Communities, governments, international agencies and institutions each have a part to play in improving how people and groups participate in society.
Unaddressed, social exclusion can result in limited education, poor employment outcomes and mental and physical ill health. As well as affecting people’s quality of life, at a national level it can constrain economic growth and lead to social unrest.
It can be challenging to determine which groups benefit from the products and services of the companies we analyse and to measure the long-term effects on people’s lives. However, as company reporting improves, assessing and identifying which companies are providing solutions to reduce inequalities becomes easier.
Global social inclusion and education challenges
Introduction
Delivering positive change for you
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As an impact investing strategy, Positive Change measures and reports on portfolio companies’ contribution in our annual Impact Report. The report illustrates how the companies addressed some of the world’s biggest challenges in 2023. At a portfolio level, we present aggregated portfolio impact and its UN sustainable development goal (SDG) contribution, plus provide a global view of the portfolio. At a company level, we explore the impact of each holding within our four impact themes.
Social inclusion and education
Environment and resource needs
Healthcare and quality of life
Base of the pyramid
Portfolio impact
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This section shows at a portfolio level how our holdings are delivering impact through the lenses of headline portfolio impact, world view and UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Base of the pyramid
Provided access to financial services to close to 523 million people
Enabled borrowing for over 95m borrowers
Introduction
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World view
Environment and resource needs
Allowed customers to save close to 1.7 trillion litres of water
Allowed customers to save over 210,000 tonnes of waste
Helped farmers engage in better farming practices on close to 163 million hectares of land
Through products in use and/or sold during the year, enabled the avoidance of close to 33 million tonnes of CO2e
Social inclusion and education
Provided access to online marketplaces for more than 10 million merchants
Provided access to education and/or training to 227 million registered learners
Healthcare and quality of life
Contributed to healthier lifestyles for close to 41 million people
Enabled 5.2 million people to send, save and spend money on healthcare services
Provided treatment and disease management solutions to over 2.3 million patients
Provided close to 31,000 instruments for scientific research
Year ended 31 December 2023
Positive Change
Impact Report
Explore this report
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Base of the pyramid
03
Social inclusion and education
05
Healthcare and quality of life
04
Environment and resource needs
02
Portfolio impact
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Introduction
Social inclusion and education
Explore this theme
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) identifies five key factors contributing to social exclusion. These are:
Holdings
Learn how our holdings below impact social inclusion and education to deliver positive change.
ASML
Positive Change - part of the solution
The Positive Change portfolio focuses on three key areas to address environmental and resource challenges: the energy transition, sustainable resource use and transforming agriculture. These areas ensure a sustainable future for our planet and its inhabitants.
Environment and resource needs challenges
Introduction
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Human activity has significantly impacted our planet, increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and stress on the Earth’s systems.
Environment and resource needs
Explore this theme
The energy transition
Innovation in renewable technology
Sustainable resource use
Addressing the over-exploitation of natural resources
Transforming agriculture
Balance our need for food production with environmental conservation
Positive Change — part of the solution
Positive Change is searching for companies improving healthcare across five themes – understanding of diseases, diagnostics, treatment, disease prevention and efficiency (system enablers).
Introduction
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The rise in lifestyle and age-related diseases and the challenges associated with complex healthcare systems, rising costs and inequalities mean that there are large opportunities for companies to address.
Healthcare and quality of life
Explore this theme
Understanding of Diseases
Biology is complex
Diagnostics
Earlier diagnosis and treatment
Treatment
New era of healthcare with technologies
Disease prevention
Medical advances continue to improve
Efficiency (System enablers)
Healthcare systems must adapt to rising demand
Introduction
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Despite the significant reduction in poverty over the past two centuries, progress has slowed recently, disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change and ongoing conflicts.
Base of the pyramid
Explore this theme
Download PDF report
Positive Change – part of the solution
Positive Change aims to improve how people and groups participate in society by investing in companies that drive social inclusion through their products and services. This could be through removing barriers, enabling connectivity, and providing education and training.
Removing barriers
Affordable housing, accessible finance
Enabling connectivity
Help more people access information, services and commerce
Education and training
Facilitating low-cost high-quality and accessible learning
Removing barriers
Providing affordable housing and accessible finance are two means by which companies can remove barriers to social inclusion in underserved communities or identity groups.
Reducing inequalities in home ownership can make a significant contribution to good health and wellbeing. Some 29 per cent of the Indian mortgage lender HDFC’s loans (by volume) go to economically weaker and lower-income groups.
The high fees and poor customer service of Brazil’s traditional banks have created barriers to financial inclusion. In contrast, Nubank, a Brazilian digital bank, offers free bank accounts on an efficient digital platform to its 75 million customers. For nearly six million of its customers, this is their first credit card or bank account.
In Latin America, MercardoLibre’s payments ecosystem is helping drive financial inclusion. The United Nations (UN) believes that financial inclusion is crucial to achieving at least eight of its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), citing its potential positive impact on gender equality, poverty, health and education.
Enabling innovation
Approximately five billion people (63 per cent of the global population) had access to the internet in 2021. However, 2.9 billion still need internet access. Reducing this figure will help more people access information, services and commerce.
Digital connectivity is the bedrock by which our holdings in companies such as Shopify and MercardoLibre drive change.
For example, Shopify provides merchants, primarily small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with access to payments, shipping and inventory management services. Doing so enables them to compete with larger digital players.
MercardoLibre is committed to fostering entrepreneurship and social mobility through its ecommerce platforms. That enables millions of SMEs to reach customers across Latin America.
Semiconductor chips are crucial in many of the new technologies emerging across multiple industries. For example, they are at the heart of monumental change in the healthcare sector, helping combine genetics, data and machine learning to help treat and prevent diseases for millions of people worldwide.
ASML manufactures the high-end extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography systems used in the world’s smallest semiconductor chips, such as those produced by TSMC, the world’s largest chipmaker. These two companies play a crucial role in lowering the cost and increasing the efficiency of semiconductors.
Education and training
According to UNICEF, in 2021, only two in three children globally attended lower or upper secondary education, and only one in two children attended upper secondary or higher education. Companies that can facilitate low-cost, high-quality, accessible training could, therefore, radically transform people’s prospects.
By offering training and work experience placements, FDM increases access to rewarding job opportunities for graduates, veterans and returners to work, regardless of their background.
Coursera is an online platform that hosts various educational content, from massive open online courses (MOOCs) to guided projects, professional certifications and online degrees. In an ever-changing job market, the company has an important role to play in lowering costs, increasing accessibility and providing relevant qualifications.
Language learning app Duolingo’s mission is to develop the best education and make it universally available. Learning a language can improve people’s economic and cultural prospects. The company has also launched literary and maths apps.
The world’s leading manufacturer of specialist lithographic equipment
Link to archived reports
For those companies that report the impact of their products and services (either through company reports or via our engagement), you can view the aggregated data to illustrate how holdings are delivering positive change by clicking on the boxes below.
In compiling our headline impact data, we have included all relevant companies, recognising their contributions to the overall highlighted impact. However, due to year-on-year variations in reporting by companies, we were unable to obtain precise figures for some entities, indicated in grey. This approach ensures our estimates remain conservative while highlighting the impact all portfolio companies are delivering. In time we hope to be able to encourage companies to increase their reporting.
Headline impact data
Geographic location
Discrimination
Socio-economic status
Discrimination based on gender, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity or migratory status contributes to social exclusion. In 2022, a staggering 129 million girls globally are out of school, and 17.1 per cent of black people in the US were below the poverty line.
Geographic location affects access to essential services and infrastructure, leading to inequality. It can lead to differences both between and within countries. For example, the number of people with income below the poverty line in Mexico is 20 per cent higher in rural areas than in urban areas.
Socio-economic status can lead to
deprivation and disadvantages in income, life expectancy and education. In Brazil, healthy life expectancy in the wealthiest quintile is 20 per cent longer
Governance structures
Governance structures can hinder social inclusion if they are ineffective, unjust or unaccountable. While a company cannot address global or national governance structures directly, its business practices should not exacerbate them.
Shocks and fragility
Shocks and fragility: From Covid-19 to extreme heatwaves and conflicts across the globe, climate change, natural disasters and health emergencies exacerbate inequalities. For example, Covid-19 pushed 47 million more women and girls into extreme poverty.
Coursera
Online learning platform hosting education content
Duolingo
Language learning app
HDFC Bank
India's largest private bank by asset value and India's largest provider of mortgages
MercadoLibre
Latin America’s largest ecommerce platform
Nubank
Brazilian neobank that aspires to reshape the Latin American financial system
Shopify
Global commerce company
TSMC
World’s largest integrated circuit foundry
Resource inefficiency
Habitat destruction
Electricity generation
GHG emissions
Since 1990, GHG emissions have surged by 54 per cent. Therefore, to achieve the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C, emissions will need to be reduced by 45 per cent from their 2022 levels.
As we transition to renewable electricity generation, the ‘energy trilemma’ involves finding a balance between the sustainability, affordability and reliability of energy supply.
Human activity is causing the most extensive loss of plant and animal life since the dinosaurs, necessitating solutions to prevent habitat destruction from industrial activities.
Resource efficiency is critical for addressing environmental challenges, with a need for technological, digital and behavioural solutions to conserve and preserve water, food, energy and minerals.
Holdings
Learn how our holdings below impact environment and resource needs to deliver positive change.
Autodesk
Leading 3D design software provider
Deere
Develops and manufactures precision agriculture technologies
Ecolab
Develops, produces and distributes cleaning products and water treatment solutions
Joby Aviation
Develops electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft
Novozymes
World’s largest manufacturer of industrial enzymes
Ørsted
Renewable energy developer and a global leader in offshore wind energy
Tesla
Electric vehicles and sustainable energy systems company
Umicore
One of the world’s largest manufacturers of automotive catalysts and lithium-ion battery cathodes
Xylem
Global water technology company
Global healthcare and quality of life challenges
Global health disparities
Rising healthcare costs
Incurable diseases
Lifestyle and age-related diseases
Lifestyle and age-related diseases are on the rise. Each year, 17 million people die from non-communicable diseases before age 70, predominantly in low- and middle-income countries.
Millions of people still suffer from incurable diseases. For example, over 55 million people globally are living with Alzheimer’s, for which there is no known cure. Continued research and innovation are essential to find better treatments and cures for such diseases.
Rising healthcare costs are a significant concern. The financial strain of healthcare can prevent people seeking the necessary care and medical debt can trap individuals, and their families, in a cycle of financial hardship. Healthcare costs cause financial hardship for around two billion people each year.
Many people around the world lack access to essential medications and basic healthcare services. The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the extent of global health disparities and in some cases further exacerbated them.
Holdings
Learn how our holdings below impact healthcare and quality of life to deliver positive change.
10x Genomics
Develops tools for single-cell analysis
AbCellera
Performs antibody discovery services for pharmaceutical and biotech partners
Alnylam
Early-stage biotech company
Dexcom
Designs, manufactures and sells continuous glucose monitoring systems (CGMs)
Discovery
Shared-value insurance policies
Illumina
Gene sequencing machines for genetic and genomic analysis
Moderna
Biotech company
Sartorius
Supplies single-use equipment to biopharmaceutical companies and research laboratories
Wuxi Biologics
One of the world’s largest outsourcing companies for the development of biologic drugs
Positive Change — part of the solution
Within the Base of the pyramid theme, Positive Change aims to invest in companies whose core mission is to address the challenges faced by those at living on some of the lowest incomes around the world. However, companies in the portfolio categorised within other themes also contribute to improving the lives of this population and are considered here.
Remittances
Remittances are a vital source of income for over a billion people worldwide
Financial resilience
Some people experience persistent poverty and others transient poverty
Financial inclusion
Financial inclusion is seen as critical for reducing poverty and boosting shared prosperity
Access to basic services
Many basic services remain inaccessible or too costly for low-income populations
Base of the pyramid challenges
Multi-dimensional poverty
Climate change
Persistent poverty
Socio-economic development
Many low-income individuals reside in countries with limited socio-economic development. Historically, inclusive economic growth has been essential for alleviating poverty.
Persistent poverty is a result of a multitude of factors that include geography, poor governance, inadequate infrastructure and connectivity, and barriers to education and healthcare.
Physical and economic shocks trap people in poverty. Climate change poses significant risks to low-income populations, especially due to increased extreme weather events.
Poverty is multi-dimensional, with affected individuals facing deprivations such as poor health, lack of education and inadequate living conditions. Low-income individuals often pay more for basic resources and services, including higher credit costs.
Holdings
Learn how our holdings below impact the base of the pyramid to deliver positive change.
Bank Rakyat Indonesia
Microfinance in Indonesia
Remitly
Provides mobile-based remittance services for migrants
Safaricom
Kenya's largest telecommunications company
Letter from our managers
What’s in our report?
Creating an impact by addressing global challenges
A sense of purpose from our dual objectives
Our beliefs
Chr. Hansen
Danish life sciences business
UN Sustainable Development Goals
We analyse each holding in the portfolio and map significant contributions from products and services to the UN SDGs. This allows us to represent the overall contribution of the portfolio to the SDGs. We also assess negative contributions to the SDGs. Our aim is to identify and hold companies for their positive contributions. Accordingly, the number of holdings we found making a significant negative contribution is less. Click the SDG icons below to view our portfolio holdings’ positive contributions.
Positive contributions
Positive contributions
Positive contributions
10x Genomics
AbCellera
Alnylam
Chr. Hansen
Dexcom
Discovery
Ecolab
Illumina
Moderna
Ørsted
Safaricom
Sartorius
Tesla
Umicore
Wuxi Biologics
Chr. Hansen
Deere
Ecolab
Illumina
Novozymes
Bank Rakyat Indonesia
HDFC Bank
MercadoLibre
Nubank
Remitly
Safaricom
Positive contributions
Coursera
Duolingo
Safaricom
Positive contributions
Safaricom
Positive contributions
Ecolab
Novozymes
Xylem
Positive contributions
Ecolab
Novozymes
Ørsted
Tesla
Positive contributions
ASML
HDFC Bank
MercadoLibre
Nubank
Shopify
TSMC
Positive contributions
10x Genomics
ASML
Autodesk
Bank Rakyat Indonesia
Illumina
MercadoLibre
Ørsted
Safaricom
Shopify
TSMC
Wuxi Biologics
Xylem
Positive contributions
Bank Rakyat Indonesia
Nubank
Remitly
Safaricom
Shopify
Positive contributions
Autodesk
HDFC Bank
Joby Aviation
Tesla
Umicore
Positive contributions
Autodesk
Chr. Hansen
Ecolab
Novozymes
Umicore
Xylem
Positive contributions
Deere
Ecolab
Novozymes
Joby Aviation
Ørsted
Tesla
Umicore
Positive contributions
Deere
Positive contributions
Deere
No positive contributions
No positive contributions
We welcome the opportunity to share our Impact Report. Every year, we endeavour to improve our reporting and better understand the positive change companies can create in the world. We hope you have found the report enlightening. Please do email Impactreport@bailliegifford.com if you would like to provide any feedback or ask questions.
Shopify
MercadoLibre 10m
Coursera 142m
Duolingo 85m
In compiling our headline impact data, we have included all relevant companies, recognising their contributions to the overall highlighted impact. However, due to year on year variations in reporting by companies, we were unable to obtain precise figures for some entities, indicated in grey. This approach ensures our estimates remain conservative while highlighting the impact all portfolio companies are delivering. In time we hope to be able to encourage companies to increase their reporting.
Data for carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) saved is based on company reporting which is either in CO2 or CO2e; the aggregate data is presented as CO2e as this is the most conservative approach.
Data related to healthier lifestyles, healthcare services including treatment and disease management and instruments for scientific research is presented to date, covering multiple years.
Discovery 40.5m
Safaricom 5.2m
Alnylam 5.1k
Dexcom 2.3m
Moderna
10x Genomics 6k
Illumina 25k
Bank Rakyat Indonesia 173m
HDFC Bank
MercadoLibre 218m
Nubank 93.9m
Remitly 5.9m
Safaricom 32.1m
Bank Rakyat Indonesia 36.9m
HDFC Bank
MercadoLibre 45m
Nubank
Safaricom 13.4m
Ecolab 856bn
Xylem 800bn
Ecolab 29.0k
Chr. Hansen 181.4k
Chr. Hansen 5.8m
Deere 157m
Ecolab 3.8m
Novozymes
Ørsted
Tesla 20m
Umicore 8.7m
United States of America
Dexcom
Deere
Moderna
Duolingo
Xylem
Alnylam
Autodesk
Tesla
Ecolab
Coursera
Remitly
Illumina
10x Genomics
Joby Aviation
Canada
Shopify
AbCellera
Brazil
Nubank
Argentina
MercadoLibre
South Africa
Discovery
Kenya
Safaricom
Denmark
Novozymes
Chr. Hansen
Ørsted
Germany
Sartorius
Netherlands
ASML
Belgium
Umicore
India
HDFC Bank
Indonesia
Bank Rakyat Indonesia
Taiwan
TSMC
China
Wuxi Biologics
Despite the challenges, we are optimistic that human ingenuity and business leadership can address these issues, promoting a sustainable future.
Over the coming decades, every sector of the economy will need to decarbonise and rebalance its relationships with nature. This will bring enormous opportunities to scale the past decade’s emerging technologies, revolutionise existing industries and commercialise new ones.
Despite the significant challenges remaining healthcare access and the global disease burden, there is much to be positive about. Advances in technology, our understanding of biology, personalised treatments and disease prevention provide reasons for optimism.
The Positive Change Team aims to support innovative companies pioneering new technologies designed to improve health outcomes around the world, as well as those helping to make quality healthcare and treatments available to more people.
Approximately four billion people, over half of the world’s population, live on less than US$3,000 per year when measured using purchasing power parity (PPP). This socioeconomic population is known as the global base of the pyramid.
Being part of the base of the pyramid will significantly impact the stability, security, safety and quality of an individual’s life. Meeting their needs is vital for creating a prosperous and inclusive world.
Make an impact
Through products in use and/or sold during the year, enabled the avoidance of close to 33 million tonnes of CO2e
Global social inclusion and education challenges
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) identifies five key factors contributing to social exclusion. These are:
Shocks and fragility
Governance structures
Socio-economic status
Geographic location
Discrimination
Discrimination based on gender, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity or migratory status contributes to social exclusion. A staggering 129 million girls globally are out of school, and 17.1 per cent of black people in the US were below the poverty line in 2022.
Geographic location affects access to essential services and infrastructure, leading to inequality. It can lead to differences both between and within countries. Between 2017 and 2022, the wealth of Brazil’s elite grew three times faster than that of the general population.
Socio-economic status can lead to deprivation and disadvantages in income, life expectancy and education. Those in the bottom 40 per cent of income distribution in the UK are almost twice as likely to report poor health than the top 20 per cent.
Governance structures can hinder social inclusion if they are ineffective, unjust or unaccountable. While a company cannot address global or national governance structures directly, its business practices should not exacerbate them.
Shocks and fragility: From Covid-19 to extreme heatwaves and conflicts across the globe, climate change, natural disasters and health emergencies exacerbate inequalities. For example, Covid-19 pushed 47 million more women and girls into extreme poverty.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity.
Canada
United States of America
Brazil
Argentina
Belgium
Netherlands
Germany
Denmark
South Africa
Kenya
India
China
Taiwan
Indonesia
HDFC Bank
HDFC Bank
Data for carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) saved is based on company reporting which is either in CO2 or CO2e; the aggregate data is presented as CO2e as this is the most conservative approach. Data related to healthier lifestyles, healthcare services including treatment and disease management and instruments for scientific research is presented to date, covering multiple years.
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Base of the pyramid
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Healthcare and quality of life
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Environment and resource needs
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Social inclusion and education
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Portfolio impact
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Base of the pyramid
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Healthcare and quality of life
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Introduction
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