The system-level investing knowledge lab
The Shareholder Commons is facilitating a Knowledge Lab for practitioners to understand the why, what, and how of system-level investing and translate this knowledge into meaningful action.
The Knowledge Lab is a public good that signposts to existing resources, develops new content, and facilitates discussions to generate knowledge and innovation among its participants and beyond.
It will be independent, global, community-driven, dynamic, and explicitly focused on the core challenge of ensuring that the pursuit of alpha does not undermines healthy systems, a growing economy, or overall market returns.
Knowledge Lab Workstreams
The Knowledge Lab will be developed via multiple methods of co-creation and engagement, including virtual and in-person roundtables focused on particular workstream themes (outlined below). Each workstream will result in specific, practical, public good resources designed for practitioners to adopt, utilize, and iterate upon.
Foundational Workstreams in Progress
Distinguishing Portfolio vs. Company Financial Effects
Resources that establish the link between portfolio returns and systemic risks and impacts and outline the theory informing action.
Actions of System-Level Investing
Providing a list of actions to take along with supporting guidance, including suggestions on how to prioritize actions, model examples, action-specific resources, etc.
Making the Case for System-Level Investing
Resources to identify specific systemic risks and impacts and the specific actions investors can take to manage them.
Join us to discuss and advance these fOundational workstreams at our upcoming roundtables
Distinguishing Portfolio and Company Financial Effects (Virtual):
Actions of System-Level Investing (Virtual):
How to Make the Case for System-Level Investing (Virtual)
System-Level Investing in Action: An Interactive Discussion Brought to You by TIIP and The Shareholder Commons at NYC Climate Week (in person),
Sept 24, 12-2 ET: Register your interest here
Externalities and System-Level Investing: Bridging Research and Practice (in partnership with the Externalities Investment Research Network and EIRN Foundation) at PRI in Person, Amsterdam
October 15, 10:30am-12:30pm CET: Register here
Foundational Workstreams Wrap Up Roundtable (Virtual)
Expected workstreams in 2027
Following the foundational workstreams above, other workstreams considered for development in 2027 include:
- Asset Manager engagement best practices
- System-level investing public policy and corporate government affairs
- Engaging with companies and corporate boards regarding system-level investor needs
- New and updated stewardship resources
- Reimagining incentives for system-level investing
A comprehensive list of possible workstreams, along with detailed descriptions, is included in the Input and Development section below.
Resource Library
A preliminary list of resources from across the ecosystem is provided below, and will be revised and added to over time. For a refresher on what system-level investing is and why it matters, read more here.
Overviews
A sampling of various introductions to system-level investing, system stewardship, and/or universal ownership, along with recommendations and challenges related to its adoption:
- Universal Ownership: Systems thinking for Asset Owners, AP7
- What Does It Look Like for Asset Owners to Lead, The Church of England Pensions Board and Wespath
- Systemic Risks: a framework for portfolio resilience, UK SIF, Scottish Widows, Canbury
- Systemic Stewardship: The Financially Material Imperative, Railpen, Sinclair Capital, TIIP
- Engaging Asset Managers to Responsibly Steward Fund Assets and the Systems That Support Them, Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) and The Shareholder Commons
- Active Ownership 2.0, Principles for Responsible Investment
- Addressing System Level Risks and Opportunities: A Guide for Investors, Principles for Responsible Investment
- Universal Ownership: A guide for charity and university asset owners, ShareAction
- Systems Stewardship: Managing Interconnected Climate Risks for Lasting Value, IGCC
- The Handbook of System-Level Investing, Lukomnik and Burckart
- Universal Ownership in Practice: A Guide to Systemic Stewardship, Quigley
Legal Foundations
Articulates the legal justification for investors adopting a systems lens into their decision-making:
- A Legal Framework for Impact, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.
- The Shareholder Commons has summarized the findings that relate to system stewardship for easier access.
- Sustainable Fiduciary Duty: How fiduciary duties can be a key to escaping the climate prisoner’s dilemma, Dolmans and Wildner.
Foundational Resources
More technical, foundational resources that complement the above introductions, serving both as theoretical foundations and providing insights into both history and practice:
- Universal Ownership in the Anthropocene, Dr. Ellen Quigley
- The Rise of Fiduciary Capitalism: How Institutional Investors Can Make Corporate America More Democratic, Hawley and Williams. For a free, article length treatment by the same authors, see here.
- Moving Beyond Modern Portfolio Theory: Investing That Matters, J. Hawley & J. Lukomnik. For a free, article length treatment by the same authors, see here.
- Universal Ownership: Why Environmental Externalities Matter to Institutional Investors, UNEP Finance Initiative
- 21st Century Investing, Burkhardt and Lydenburg
- An Honorable Harvest: It is Time for Universal Owners to Take Responsibility for Their Portfolios, Alexander
- Pension Funds as Universal Owners: Opportunity Beckons and Leadership Calls, Urwin
- Cambridge Handbook of Institutional Investment and Fiduciary Duty, Editors: Hawley, James P., Hoepner, Andreas G.F., Johnson, Keith L., Sandberg, Joakim & Waitzer, Edward J.
- Routledge Handbook of Responsible Investment, Editors: Hebb, Tessa, Hawley, James P., Hoepner, Andreas G.F., Neher, Agnes L. and Wood, David
- Reframing Financial Markets as Complex Systems: Tools for Systemic Risk Analysis, Portfolio Management, and System-Level Investing, Hayman and Park
Templates
Out-of-the-box resources that enable incorporation of system-level thinking into various aspects of investor activity:
- Making the Case: Macroeconomic Risk & Portfolio Impact, A Tool for System-Level Investors: Provides sample talking points, text, and research to help investors support system stewardship
- Cambridge Principles: Can be incorporated into an institution’s governance documents to provide a governing body with confidence that it is acting in the best interests of beneficiaries and provide clear guidance to staff and outside managers.
- Asset Management Mandate: Model language that can be adapted by asset owners to use in an asset management mandate to ensure that the manager is authorized to practice system stewardship.
- Model RFP for Proxy Voting Advice: Model Request for Proposals (MRFP) that articulates demand for proxy voting advice reflecting the financial impact of company decisions on diversified portfolios.
- Investment Beliefs and Proxy Voting Guidelines: Adoption can provide give staff and advisors the direction they need to act on systemic issues and ensure that trustees have accounted for the full effect of their stewardship choices.
Topical Guides
Research and guidance on how system-level investing intersects with specific system issues, and how the adoption of ‘guardrails’ that establish specific expectations of corporate entities on these issues can protect portfolio value. Learn more about guardrails here.
Corporate Disclosure Standards
Corporate sustainability disclosures are necessary to manage system-level impacts. Reporting standards vary in their orientation to ‘materiality’ – generally defined based on what matters to financial performance of the entity (financial materiality), what matters to stakeholders of the entity (impact materiality), or both (double materiality), but the orientations do not cleanly align with portfolio impacts (see an articulation of this here). Standards that take an explicit systemic risk approach to informing disclosures are most useful for system-level investing, but is currently limited to the TISFD (in development) listed below.
- Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD)
- International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB)
- Global Reporting Initiative Standards (GRI)
- Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)
- Task Force on Nature Related Financial Disclosures (TNFD)
- Taskforce on Inequality and Social Related Financial Disclosures (TISFD)
Research
Organizations that support and produce research related to system-level investing.
Service Providers
Organizations that provide specific services catered directly to system-level investing. Disclaimer: This list of service providers is provided as a convenience to users of the Knowledge Lab. Listing does not mean we endorse or recommend any provider. We encourage you to do your own research and due diligence before choosing a service provider.
INPUT AND Development
The Knowledge Lab will engage leading experts and practitioners as well as novices to collectively co-create ideas, resources, and communities of practice to advance system-level investing. A Listening Tour was held from November 2025 to June 2026 to inform its priorities.
listening tour Highlights
- Over 280 individuals provided input globally, representing more than 200 organizations
- Support for independent public practical public good resources and co-creation and dialogue
- Importance of rigor and integrity particularly as interest in system-level investing grows
- Many possible workstreams developed through or in collaboration with the Knowledge Lab
Disclaimer
The Knowledge Lab is intended solely to provide information to support investors in better understanding risks and opportunities and thereby helping them to protect their long-term portfolio growth. External links to other resources may contain statements by individuals who do not represent The Shareholder Commons. We do not endorse or validate the information provided by any of the sources cited. The Shareholder Commons makes no representations and provides no warranties regarding any information or opinions provided herein or in any third-party websites or services that you may access as a result of this publication. Neither The Shareholder Commons nor any of its employees, officers, directors, or agents, shall be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with use of or reliance on any such information or opinions, including, but not limited to, lost profits or punitive or consequential damages.
The Shareholder Commons does not provide, nor does the content of the Knowledge Lab constitute, investment, proxy voting, financial planning, legal, accounting or tax advice. We are neither licensed nor qualified to provide any such advice. The content of the Knowledge Lab is provided for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered as information sufficient upon which to base any decisions on investing, proxy voting, purchases, sales, trades, or any other investment transactions. We do not express an opinion on the future or expected value of any security or other interest and do not explicitly or implicitly recommend or suggest an investment strategy of any kind.
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