Welcome to your round-up: a monthly selection of news hand-picked to help keep you up to date, for businesses, investors and others working to create positive impact.
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Corporate purpose
The Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership has published New Legal Frameworks for Purpose-driven Organisations: A Comparative Law Analysis of Dual-purpose Companies. This detailed analysis tracks the development of ‘shareholder primacy’ as a dominant organising principle for business and compares legislative and policy developments across the world to identify common features and jurisdictional differences in models for ‘dual-purpose’ companies. The report describes a global trend of convergence, based on an “increasingly coherent body of common principles concerning corporate purpose, directors’ responsibilities, transparency and accountability”, and proposes a ‘Model Law’ as a basis for harmonisation in response to the emergence of a new category of business organisation.
Social Investment Business (SIB) and the think-tank and consultancy NPC have launched a new framework, Segmenting the impact economy: A framework for directing finance effectively, designed to help funders, investors and policymakers better understand the diverse organisations that make up the UK’s impact economy and their differing capital needs. The report argues that treating the sector as a single market can lead to inappropriate funding approaches, and obscure where additional support is needed, but that clearer distinctions between organisational models could help ensure that the right forms of funding and finance reach different types of organisations. It categorises organisations into five segments, ranging from grant-dependent charities and co-operatives to purpose-led businesses and fully commercial enterprises.
ReGenerate has published The Good Development Plan: A blueprint for building better, faster, which draws on research with developers and built-environment experts, including The Crown Estate, Landsec and Muse, to set out how government can realign the built environment system to deliver positive impact, rather than centring profit. The report explores key tenets of purpose-driven development and describes practical interventions across five areas: reforming value measurement, realigning funding and incentives, strengthening public-private partnerships, shaping whole places, and building capability and collaboration.
Bates Wells’s 2026 Impact Report has been published, focusing on environmental leadership in action and how we are contributing to nature recovery, long-term stewardship and climate action. Alongside sharing an update on our own Science-Based Target journey, the report demonstrates the ways in which we have been using innovative legal solutions to create action for our clients; by writing frameworks that allow clients to embed nature into decision-making, representing Nature on the Board, empowering communities to lead nature recovery, and supporting a circular economy.
B Corps
B Lab UK has announced the first UK businesses certified under the new standards for B Corp certification. Among the cohort of 18 businesses are Mulberry, Fussy, Lily’s Kitchen, Vivobarefoot and Huel.
Government Affairs & Collective Action: Why Europe’s B Corps Can’t Stay on the Sidelines. B Lab Europe provided clarification on the Government Affairs and Collective Action Impact Topic, one of seven topics in the new B Corp certification standards. This topic encourages businesses to actively contribute to systems change; collaboratively shaping fairer, more inclusive and regenerative economies, rather than isolated corporate responsibility efforts. The article cites examples of collaborations such as the B Corp Coffee Coalition and the B Corp Beauty Coalition. The topic also places an expectation on businesses to integrate tax transparency and responsible lobbying practices into their governance.
B Lab Europe has announced that the European ‘Emerging B Corp Markets’ include over 100 certified B Corps, as of July 2026. These are countries and regions where the B Corp movement is at an early stage of development, but where momentum is building in local communities of B Corps. In this article, B Lab Europe explores the local initiatives that have supported the development of the movement in these areas.
Social enterprise
The government has announced changes to the rules on public procurement, building on existing social value measures – please see Procurement Policy Note 026 for more information. Among other changes, the assessment of bids will weigh the potential benefits to the local community, created through the provision of services by a bidder, at 20% (rather than 10%) in the scoring of contracts worth £5m or more. The stated aim of the changes is for businesses awarded public contracts to have a greater positive impact in key areas, focusing on employment and training opportunities. For more, Social Enterprise UK has responded to the government’s announcement. It welcomes the increased weighting for social value in larger public contracts, but also notes that some of the changes could, in practice, reduce the emphasis on social value.
The School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) has announced that it is leading an 18-month research project exploring racial disparities in social enterprise growth. It aims to find out why social enterprises led by Black and racially minoritised people experience slower trading income growth and what funders, policymakers, enterprise-support organisations and others can do to improve this. The SSE is working in partnership with The Social Investment Consultancy, with funding from Trust for London.
Co-operatives UK published a report marking 10 years of the Community Shares Booster Fund. It reflects on the fund’s role in helping community enterprises raise finance through community share offers and sets out recommendations for the future development of the community shares market. Co-operatives UK has also announced plans for a dedicated investment fund for community shares.
The UN Inter-Agency Task Force on Social and Solidarity Economy has announced the first Declaration by the “Group of Friends on the Social and Solidarity Economy”. The Declaration sets out commitments to strengthen intergovernmental cooperation to promote the global social and solidarity economy, relating to decent work, sustainable development and social justice, and it is supported by 20 governments.
Sustainable fashion
Hiding in plain sight – paying the price of forever chemicals in fashion. Bates Wells’ Oliver Scutt and Anita Binns examined growing concerns around the impact of PFAS. These synthetic compounds underpin many of the performance qualities that consumers expect in clothes, form waterproofing to stain-resistance. However, PFAS present health and environmental hazards. This article calls for a combination of legislative, commercial and supply chain measures to mitigate the damage these chemicals can cause.
Consultancy and research firm Earth Action has published a new report, From Shedding to Solutions, with support from global non-profit The Nature Conservancy. The report finds that textile manufacturing generates an estimated 92,000 tonnes of microfibre losses annually, with 63% (over 58,000 tonnes) reaching the environment. The report concludes that combining improved textile design, cleaner manufacturing practices, and better wastewater and sludge management could reduce textile-related microfibre pollution by up to 95% by 2032, demonstrating the significant potential for impact with coordinated industry action. The report notes that microfibre pollution is now recognised as one of the most widespread forms of microplastic contamination.
Impact investors confront fashion’s ‘volume paradox’. In this short article, Impact Investor examines the challenges of the fashion sector and the opportunities available to investors to drive lasting change. It highlights that addressing overproduction, resource-intensive supply chains, fossil fuel-based textiles and low recycling rates will be critical to achieving meaningful environmental progress. Investors are particularly targeting SMEs in manufacturing hubs to finance decarbonisation, and renewable energy adoption, while supporting greater supply chain transparency.
Climate & biodiversity
The independent National Heat Risk Commission has published a ‘framing report’, A heat circuit breaker for the UK, and announced its first Call for Evidence on how the UK can improve resilience to the risks of extreme heat. The framing report describes the impact of extreme heat on different aspects of the UK, including health, education, energy, agriculture and economic productivity, and notes that compared to other environmental risks, such as flooding, the UK has taken less action to increase resilience. The report also sets out the Commission’s strategy, its plans for the Call for Evidence, and recommendations for actions that have significant potential to strengthen heat resilience.
Climate clauses in real estate: why they matter more than ever. Bates Wells’ Karli Hiscock and Anita Binns consider the growing impact of climate change on real estate and how ‘climate clauses’ can help contracts become a practical tool for delivering climate strategy, with benefits for landlords and tenants.
Government has announced its intention to invest £400 million in the Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF), which launched at COP30. The funds would be provided by way of loan, rather than grant, and the press release states that this “demonstrates the UK’s new approach to climate finance, acting as an investor instead of a donor”. The announcement also notes that ‘forest countries’ will not be expected to repay the loan, and that the TFFF is designed to generate returns from its performance-based model.
The Apparel Impact Institute has published Taking Stock of Progress Against the Roadmap to Net Zero 2026, its annual update quantifying greenhouse gas emissions across the global apparel value chain. Among other findings, the report states that the fashion industry’s emissions went up 6.3% from 2023 to 2024, an increase for the second year in a row. It finds that the rise was primarily driven by fibre use, particularly polyester, and that energy decarbonisation is a key route to reducing operational emissions going forwards. The report issues a call to action across the apparel value chain, including calling for finance and other support to enable suppliers to decarbonise.
Supply chain impact
In a short article, Andy Daly, Head of Procurement Programmes at Social Enterprise UK, considered how businesses can take practical action to reduce supply chain emissions, rather than treating measurement as an end in itself, and examines the role of supplier choice in supporting climate objectives.
Too hot to ignore: Why purchasing practices are critical to addressing extreme heat risks for workers. The Ethical Trading Initiative explored findings from a recent report into extreme heat in garment supply chains, published by NYU Stern’s Center for Business and Human Rights. The article summarises recommendations from the research for how brands can support suppliers to adapt to extreme heat. These include prioritising longer lead times, so factories can adjust production during heatwaves, predictable order volumes, so suppliers can plan investments in cooling infrastructure, and timely payment, so cash flow can support adaptation and co-investment, underpinned by open and honest communication between buyers and suppliers.
Impact investing
The Impact Investing Institute has announced a new project to explore how a broader range of investors can help scale the community development finance institution (CDFI) sector’s reach and impact. The announcement notes ongoing difficulty for small businesses accessing finance and the role of CDFIs in addressing this. The Institute plans to engage with combined and local authorities, wealth managers, family offices, foundations and institutional investors, and explore practical ways to mobilise new capital.
In recent weeks, several new deals and partnerships have been announced, including:
- a new investment partnership between Social and Sustainable Capital LLP and Thriving Investments, alongside Places Foundation and other investors, focusing on supported accommodation and homelessness housing solutions;
- a new collaboration enabling all future Triodos Bank UK crowdfunding investment offers to be hosted on the Ethex platform; and
- the launch of the Resonance Housing Pathways Fund, an open-ended residential property fund aiming to raise £700m to provide affordable homes for people facing homelessness.
Better Society Capital has published an interview with Andrew Hall, Principal Investment Manager at Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF), exploring the role of Social Outcomes Partnerships (SOPs) within GMPF’s local investment strategy. The article discusses how outcomes-based approaches can support place-based impact objectives, with GMPF having committed £15m to SOPs since 2014.
In a blog for Pathway Fund, Bonnie Chiu, Managing Director of The Social Investment Consultancy, reflected on progress since the launch of the Racial Equity Scorecard and the challenges of embedding racial equity considerations within investment decision making. The article focuses on the role of foundation endowments and investment portfolios in advancing racial equity and justice objectives.
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