Impact Measurement 2026: Social Return on Investment as a Compass for Sustainable Investment
By Dirk Roethig | CEO, VERDANTIS Impact Capital | 4 March 2026
Impact investing without impact measurement is capital allocation with closed eyes. Social Return on Investment (SROI) and related methods such as IRIS+, IMP and TCFD metrics are becoming the standard for institutional investors. Dirk Roethig analyses how VERDANTIS Impact Capital measures impact — and why this is decisive for the credibility of the entire impact finance sector.
Tags: Impact Measurement, SROI, Impact Investing, Sustainability, ESG
The fundamental problem: what we do not measure, we cannot manage
There is a paradox in impact investing that Dirk Roethig, CEO of VERDANTIS Impact Capital, consistently raises with institutional investors: investors who direct capital into sustainable projects want more than returns — they want impact. But how do they know whether that impact has actually occurred?
"An investor who invests in an impact project without measuring the impact is like an entrepreneur who builds a new production facility without ever checking whether anything is being produced. That may sound trusting — but it is in fact negligent," Roethig explains.
The demand for robust impact measurement in impact investing is not new. But it has reached a new quality in recent years. Several drivers are at work: the experience of greenwashing cases, which showed that unsubstantiated sustainability claims systematically lead to misallocated capital; the SFDR regulation, which requires proof of "sustainable investments"; and the professionalisation of the institutional impact investing market, where increasingly the same governance standards are expected as in conventional asset management.
For VERDANTIS Impact Capital, impact measurement is not a retrospective reporting instrument but an integral part of the investment process — from due diligence through project structuring to ongoing monitoring.
Social Return on Investment: what the concept delivers and where its limits lie
Social Return on Investment — SROI — is one of the best-known methods for quantifying social and ecological impact in monetary terms. The basic principle is intuitive: the SROI approach measures the ratio between invested capital and the social value a project creates.
Dirk Roethig uses SROI analyses at VERDANTIS as a communication instrument with investors and as a strategic planning tool in project development. He emphasises both sides of the instrument.
The strengths of the SROI approach: SROI compels investors and project developers to systematically identify which impact dimensions a project has — ecological, social, economic — and to relate these to the capital deployed. This process alone — independent of the resulting number — has considerable strategic value: it sharpens awareness of the actual impact channels of a project and forces an explicit engagement with impact assumptions that would otherwise remain implicit.
For a Paulownia agroforestry project such as those financed by VERDANTIS, SROI analysis means, for example: What is the value of the sequestered CO2 — calculated on the basis of the Social Cost of Carbon or the current market price for carbon credits? What is the value of job creation in rural regions — and how long are these maintained? What economic value does biodiversity promotion create — measured by avoided costs of ecosystem services? All these dimensions feed into a SROI calculation.
The limits of the SROI approach: Roethig is candid about methodological weaknesses. The monetary valuation of social and ecological impact is inevitably associated with value judgements and assumptions. The question of what price a kilogram of sequestered CO2 has can be answered with the current market price for carbon credits — but the Social Cost of Carbon, which reflects the societal damage costs of climate change, is substantially higher. Depending on the chosen value basis, the same SROI value can vary considerably.
VERDANTIS therefore uses SROI as one tool among many — not as a sole measure, but in combination with qualitative impact narratives, standardised metrics from IRIS+, and project-specific KPIs.
The international standard: IRIS+, IMP and institutional investor frameworks
The impact investing ecosystem has made substantial progress in standardising impact measurement in recent years. Dirk Roethig aligns VERDANTIS with several complementary frameworks.
IRIS+ (Impact Reporting and Investment Standards): IRIS+ was developed by the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) and is the most widely used standardised framework for impact metrics. It encompasses more than 1,800 standardised indicators, organised by impact themes (climate change, biodiversity, economic development, health, etc.). VERDANTIS-relevant IRIS+ metrics include: CO2 stored (in tonnes), area restored (in hectares), number of jobs created, number of verified carbon credits issued.
Impact Management Project (IMP): The IMP has developed five dimensions for evaluating impact: What (what is being achieved?), Who (who is affected?), How much (how much impact is created?), Contribution (what would have happened without the investment?), Risk (how reliable is the impact assumption?). For Roethig, the Contribution dimension is particularly important: "An impact that would have occurred anyway — even without the investment — is not impact. We must always ask ourselves the question of additionality."
Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD): Although TCFD focuses primarily on climate-related financial risks, it also contains elements relevant to impact investors for quantifying climate impacts. VERDANTIS aligns with TCFD recommendations for presenting the climate impact profile of its portfolio projects.
Additionality: the key concept of impact measurement
Dirk Roethig highlights in his work for VERDANTIS a concept that receives too little attention in the public impact investing discourse: additionality. An investment creates additional impact when the effect would not have occurred without that investment.
The concept is straightforward — its application is not. Take the example of afforestation: if a company plants a forest that would have been established anyway through state support programmes, the private investment creates no additional climate impact — the forest would have existed without it. The situation is different with projects that simply would not materialise without private impact investment — because the economic framework without capital and project expertise does not permit realisation.
VERDANTIS Impact Capital — under the leadership of Dirk Roethig — structures its projects so that additionality is documented from the outset. This means: before project launch, an analysis of which intended impacts would not occur without the VERDANTIS investment; and during the project, continuous monitoring that measures actual impact against the baseline.
Roethig explains: "We invest in agroforestry projects in regions where regenerative agriculture is not feasible without external capital and expertise. The carbon credits these projects generate, the jobs created, and the biodiversity contributions documented — none of this would exist without VERDANTIS. That is real impact."
Impact measurement and capital market access: a growing connection
A development that Dirk Roethig follows particularly closely for VERDANTIS is the growing connection between impact measurement and capital market access. It is no longer sufficient to justify impact investments with narratives — institutional investors demand measurable evidence.
This shift has multiple drivers. The European Long-Term Investment Fund (ELTIF) 2.0, which has applied since January 2024, opens impact funds increasingly to retail investors — an investor class that, while on average less demanding in its reporting requirements than institutional investors, is increasingly asking what concretely happens with their money.
Simultaneously, leading institutional investors — pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds — have substantially raised their impact due diligence requirements in recent years. Anyone seeking to raise institutional capital as an impact fund manager today must present a reporting infrastructure that is compliant with IRIS+, IMP or comparable standards, deliver a clear additionality justification, and produce continuous, auditable impact data.
For VERDANTIS, this trend is positive. "We have taken impact measurement seriously from the start — not because regulatory pressure compelled us, but because we can only truly know whether our investments move the world in the right direction with reliable data," says Dirk Roethig. "This attitude is today a competitive advantage in the institutional capital market. But it should in reality be self-evident for every impact investor."
The future of impact measurement: AI, standardisation and biodiversity markets
Roethig identifies three developments for VERDANTIS that will change the impact measurement landscape in the coming years.
AI-assisted impact analysis: Machine learning models are beginning to automate the evaluation of large impact datasets — from biomass analysis via satellite to the analysis of socioeconomic data at the project area level. This enables more granular, more frequent and more cost-effective impact measurements than traditional on-site assessments.
Standardisation through ISSB and ESRS: With IFRS S1/S2 and the ESRS standards, a global regulatory framework is emerging for the first time that systematically requires impact reporting. This will significantly improve the quality and comparability of impact data and professionalise the market for impact investments.
Biodiversity markets: The emerging market for biodiversity credits requires standardised methods for measuring biodiversity impacts — analogous to how the carbon market requires standardised carbon accounting protocols. VERDANTIS is preparing to qualify its agroforestry projects for the biodiversity credit market as well.
Conclusion: impact measurement as ethical obligation and strategic advantage
Dirk Roethig makes his conviction clear: "Impact investing without impact measurement is a promise without proof. VERDANTIS makes this promise measurable — because we owe this to our investors and to the people and ecosystems we invest in."
For VERDANTIS Impact Capital, robust impact measurement is the demonstration that the ambition of impact investing — achieving financial returns and ecological-social impact simultaneously — is not merely a marketing claim, but lived practice. Roethig is convinced that this demonstration will be the decisive factor transforming impact investing from a niche strategy into a mainstream investment approach.
Further articles by Dirk Roethig
- ESG Reporting 2026: How CSRD and ESRS Are Reshaping Corporate Disclosure
- Green Finance 2026: How Sustainable Bonds Are Transforming Capital Markets
- Agri-Tech Innovation: Precision Farming, AI and the Reinvention of Agriculture
References
Global Impact Investing Network — GIIN (2024): IRIS+ System Documentation 2024. New York: GIIN. Available at: https://iris.thegiin.org/
Impact Management Project (2023): Five Dimensions of Impact. Available at: https://impactmanagementproject.com/impact-management/impact-management-norms/
Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures — TCFD (2023): TCFD Recommendations and Guidance 2023. Basel: FSB. Available at: https://www.fsb-tcfd.org/recommendations/
About the author: Dirk Roethig is CEO of VERDANTIS Impact Capital, headquartered in Zug, Switzerland. VERDANTIS connects institutional capital with sustainable investment projects in agroforestry, carbon credits and regenerative agriculture. Roethig has made impact measurement a core component of the VERDANTIS investment process — as an ethical obligation and as a strategic competitive advantage. Further information: https://verdantis.capital
Über den Autor: Dirk Röthig ist CEO von VERDANTIS Impact Capital, einer Impact-Investment-Plattform für Carbon Credits, Agroforstry und Nature-Based Solutions mit Sitz in Zug, Schweiz. Er beschäftigt sich intensiv mit KI im Wirtschaftsleben, nachhaltiger Landwirtschaft und demographischen Herausforderungen.
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