Accelerating Impact Investments for Climate and Nature in Asia 2025

3.4 Standards and taxonomy Harmonized standards and a clear taxonomy are critical for verifying investment opportunities, enabling investors to reach a common understanding. Standardization not only allows for more equitable comparisons of impact investments across sectors, geographies and asset classes but also enhances the quality and quantity of available investment data for future opportunities. Furthermore, it facilitates multistakeholder collaboration by establishing a shared framework for evaluating investments. One significant challenge is that social and environmental impacts often materialize much later than financial returns, making it difficult to assess the success of investments without metrics that track long-term outcomes. Several initiatives are working to address this challenge. For example, the Green Finance Industry Taskforce (GFIT), convened by MAS, is developing a taxonomy as a key component of its broader mandate to accelerate green finance development. GFIT’s efforts also include enhancing environmental risk management practices for financial institutions, improving disclosure standards and promoting green finance solutions. In addition, the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), through its IRIS+ system, and Novata have integrated their metrics and data management tools to help asset managers collect, manage and analyse standardized impact data from portfolio companies. This enables investors to report relevant impact information to stakeholders. When investments bring together multiple stakeholders, harmonization helps bridge communication gaps between sectors and drives strategic coordination. To unlock more capital for NbS, achieving common understanding is essential. While market concessionary finance typically flows from philanthropic- and public-sector sources, these alone are insufficient to close the funding gap required to address climate risks. The private sector must also play a key role in mobilizing additional capital around nature-based investments. AlphaTrio Partners was established to drive measurable impact alongside sustainable returns in Asia by empowering disruptive technologies with robust business models. AlphaTrio focuses on delivering positive environmental and social outcomes that align with both regional priorities and global standards. Through its vast ecosystem of strategic partners and co-investors, AlphaTrio supports the commercial scaling of initiatives aimed at addressing urbanization, promoting sustainable living, tackling hunger and enhancing agricultural resilience, improving resource efficiency, decarbonizing transport and shipping, and advancing the energy transition, including: –Property technology (proptech) and mobility: Decarbonizing buildings and cities to maximize energy efficiency, implementing energy-saving solutions, smart building management systems, new materials and sustainable living solutions such as electric vehicles (EVs). –Clean technology (cleantech): Carbon capture technologies, renewable energy, batteries and water treatment systems critical to reducing emissions. –Agriculture and food technology (agrifoodtech): Addressing global biodiversity loss, extreme weather and food and water security challenges through precision farming, enabling the growth of more food without straining natural resources, and advancing alternative protein solutions. The non-profit Institute of Sustainability and Technology (IST) was established to accelerate the climate transition with capacity building, thematic research and conferences. IST supports AlphaTrio Partners with Impact Measurement and Management (IMM) by developing a robust IMM framework and conducting independent impact due diligence on investment opportunities, ensuring external validation and alignment with global standards. Through its impact investment community network, IST ensures that the framework remains aligned with evolving standards, such as IRIS+, and that the fund consistently delivers measurable and verified impact. Harmonization helps bridge communication gaps between sectors and drives strategic coordination. CASE STUDY 13 AlphaTrio Partners and Institute of Sustainability and Technology Accelerating Impact Investments for Climate and Nature in Asia 22