Smart investments with impact

The money in your super has an impact. What your super is funding matters. The total amount of money in Australia’s superannuation system is $4.1 trillion – that's $4,100,000,000,000, which is a lot by anyone’s standards! Where all that money is invested matters. It has  the ability to shape our economy, society and environment while building your retirement savings.

That’s what impact investing is all about. Impact investments are investments made with the intention to generate positive, measurable social or environmental impact alongside a financial return.

In super, delivering positive financial outcomes for members is always the number one priority. Impact investing isn’t about leaving returns on the table, it’s about acknowledging that it’s possible to have a positive impact alongside generating returns.

We’re proud to introduce a few smartMonday investments with impact.

One of our latest investments is in a fund focused on social housing, an asset class that can generate strong risk-adjusted returns, partly protected by federal government schemes that help deliver financial returns for members. 

The Conscious Investment Management Social Housing Fund 2 invests in a variety of social housing properties. 

The fund aims to deliver market-rate financial returns while increasing the supply of social housing in Australia by working in partnership with registered Community Housing Providers. 

The fund is focusing on investment opportunities supported by the  Housing Australia Future Fund. This is a $10bn Federal Government funding initiative administered by Housing Australia which aims to support the delivery of 20,000 social homes and 10,000 affordable homes across regional and metropolitan Australia over five years, including specialist disability accommodation. 

This renewable energy fund targets infrastructure in North America, including wind, solar and battery storage- from distributed generation assets all the way up to utility-scale plants.

It is focused on small to medium-sized projects, to address what the fund manager sees as a significant gap in the market.

In 2024, the fund began making its first investments in a diverse portfolio of renewable assets. One of the initial investments is a co-investment in the Faraday Solar project. Faraday Solar is a 682.5 MW ground-mounted solar facility in Utah in the US. 

At the end of last year, Excelsior Energy Capital (the team behind this investment fund) successfully closed on a $1.3 billion USD financing package for Faraday. It's the largest renewable energy investment made by Excelsior to date.

Through a debt investment, smartMonday has injected $20 million into ZEN Energy. The investment has enabled work to commence on the 111MW/291MWh Templers battery energy storage system, located 60 km north of Adelaide. It will be among the largest in the state, which is leading Australia’s energy transition to a renewable energy superpower.

ZEN Energy is an energy retailer that’s committed to only signing energy offtake agreements with renewable energy generators. The company also has a near-term science-based emissions reduction target in line with limiting global warming by 1.5°C.