Pillar 6
Impact Measurement and Valuation

SGFIN develops tools to quantify and monetise sustainability impacts across climate, biodiversity and social inclusion, enabling stronger integration into investment and policy decisions. Using frameworks such as Integrated Return on Investment (IROI), this work supports firms and financiers in assessing the true value of sustainability outcomes across sectors, from SMEs to green buildings and energy transition, while improving transparency and capital allocation toward impactful projects.

SGFIN research on impact measurement and valuation advances rigorous methods for assessing environmental and social impacts of policies and investments. It develops frameworks to quantify climate, biodiversity and ecosystem benefits, employs economic valuation techniques, and advances standardised metrics and disclosure approaches that support transparent impact assessment, better decision-making and accountability in sustainable finance and policy contexts.

Same-Race Voting Preferences in Director Elections

J. Sulaeman, and Q. Ye. (2026) Who Do You Vote For? Same-Race Voting Preferences in Director Elections. European Corporate Governance Institute – Finance Working Paper No. 872/2023, Review of Finance, accepted. https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4333509

This paper highlights racial and ethnic preferences in corporate director elections. Using a comprehensive dataset of mutual fund voting records, we discover that mutual fund managers are more likely to vote for director nominees who share their racial or ethnic identity. Funds managed by White-dominated teams exhibit the strongest same-race preferences, particularly those in fund families with scarce minority representation. Same-race voting preferences have detrimental implications for the career outcomes of minority director candidates, and are associated with worse fund performance primarily when fund managers operate under weaker accountability. We investigate various potential mechanisms—including statistical discrimination, value maximization, conflicts of interest, social networks, and taste-based biases—and find that the evidence aligns most closely with a taste-based explanation for same-race preferential voting.

Keppel Bay Tower: Valuing What a Green Retrofit Delivers

Zhang, W., Jefferson, Zhang, F., Zhang, J., Or, F. X., Wong, E.Z.H., and Wong, S.J. (2026). Keppel Bay Tower: Valuing What A Green Retrofit Delivers, SGFIN-Keppel Case Study, National University of Singapore. https://sgfin.nus.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/KBT-case-study.pdf

Mortgages, Subways & Automobiles

Agarwal, S., Chua, Y. H., Ghosh, P., Ghosh, S. K., & She, L. (2025). Mortgages, subways and automobiles. Journal of Public Economics, 252, Article 105522. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2025.105522

We examine how sustainable infrastructure investments affect household financial outcomes by studying the impact of subway expansions on mortgage repayment behavior in Delhi, India. Using administrative data from one of India’s largest mortgage lenders, we find that households in postal codes with newly opened stations experience a 4.42% decline in mortgage delinquency rate and a 1.38% increase in prepayment rate. Evidence from vehicle registration records suggests that these improvements are driven by reduced automobile reliance, with vehicle spending falling by 6.52%. The effects are most pronounced among financially constrained households, who cut back on low-quality vehicle purchases and exhibit the greatest gains in repayment performance.

Consumption Carbon Footprint: Singapore Case Study

Flavia Badarinza | Johannine Enerio | Devansh Joshi | Johan Sulaeman | Sumit Agarwal

2025

This whitepaper aims to provide an assessment of Singapore’s household consumption carbon footprint using the country-agnostic algorithm described in the SGFIN Whitepaper “Consumption Carbon Footprint: Country Level Data Framework”. It seeks to highlight carbon impacts across income groups and consumption categories while identifying pathways for footprint reduction and opportunities for carbon labelling and value-chain decarbonization.

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Just Transition Finance Challenges & Opportunities for the Early Retirement of Indonesia’s Coal-Fired Power Plants

Yuan, Y., Zhang, W., Aini, L.K., Budianto, K.F., Winayo, M.F., Jie, Y., Sulaeman, J., Lee, K.W.F., and J. Hamdani (2024). Just Transition Finance Challenges & Opportunities for the Early Retirement of Indonesia’s Coal-Fired Power Plants, SGFIN Industry Report #2, National University of Singapore. https://sgfin.nus.edu.sg/sgfin_industry_report-2/

Integrated Impact Valuation Framework for Green Buildings

Jefferson | Weina Zhang | Aaron Mueller | Chunyu Yang

2024

This whitepaper introduces SGFIN’s integrated impact valuation framework for green buildings: a comprehensive approach built on the harmonized impact indicators of 13 existing building certification standards and impact measurement frameworks. Our proposed framework integrates Economic, Environmental, Social, and Governance (EESG) impacts into a unified monetary assessment model, providing a better understanding of the impact values created by green buildings.

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