Consulting Services

Take your policies, programs and practices to the system level.

In 2015, TIIP's Steve Lydenberg and William Burckart coined the term system-level investing. Since then, TIIP has published pioneering research and supported some of the world's leading investors as they put system-level strategies into practice. We bring that experience to every engagement.

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Why now

System-level investing is now integral to the PRI's Progression Pathway B, distinct from ESG integration (Pathway A) and impact strategies that may or may not consider systemic effects (Pathway C).

Source: UNPRI.org, "What is system-level investing?", October 3, 2024.

How TIIP can help

Tailored guidance across three areas.

System-level investing moves beyond traditional ESG and impact investing. It recognizes large-scale risks and opportunities, expands conventional investment strategies, and applies advanced techniques to foster resilient, healthy environmental, social and financial systems.

Activation

Assess readiness and build a strong foundation for system-level investing.

Applying the TIIP Score Methodology: Our approach leverages our proprietary method for evaluating preparedness, identifying challenges, opportunities, and a process for deepening the integration of system-level investing.
Designing Customized Training: Our bespoke training programs for Boards, Trustees and leadership teams deepen their understanding of system-level investing and its implications for their organization.
Supporting Governance & Oversight: Our tailored guidance helps investors establish a governance structure to oversee implementation.

Implementation

Practical tools and support for building system-level strategies into policies and practices.

SAIL (Systems Aware Investing Launchpad): see SAIL.
Investment Integration: Personalized assistance in embedding system-level investing into: RFPs, Statements of Investment Beliefs, and asset allocation; Shareholder engagement, targeted investment programs, and manager selection/monitoring; Advanced approaches related to opportunity generation, investment enhancement, and field building.
Customized Solutions: Tailored engagement constructed for foundations, pension funds, family offices, and investment consultants, considering their priorities, capabilities, and governance structures.

Reviews

Assess and refine your investment strategy against system-level principles.

Comprehensive Portfolio Analysis: Assessments use our proprietary system-level investing measurement framework.
Asset Manager Evaluations: Assessments evaluate alignment with system-level investing principles.

Strategy Playbooks

Looking for strategy guidance? TIIP has a Playbook for that.

Organization-wide System-level Investing Playbook

For the investor ready to align their entire portfolio with long-term systemic outcomes, we help you chart the course so that all components of your process align — governance, asset allocation, mandate design, and more — so everything works towards the same strategic goals.

Systemic Stewardship Playbook

For those ready to take their stewardship efforts to the system level, we help you build a systems-aware stewardship strategy allowing you to take coherent action at the company level, industry level and system level.

Asset Class-Specific Playbook

For investors seeking a sharper strategy that reflects the unique utility of a particular asset class to contend with a specific systemic risk, or intersection of risks, we help chart a course to optimize every dollar, given key leverage points identified.

Issue-Specific Playbook for a Targeted Geography

For investors navigating a pressing issue area — or a tangle of converging risks — we diagnose the systemic dynamics at play in your priority geographic area (whether local, national, regional or global) and deliver actionable guidance tailored to you, the type of capital you have and the advanced system-level techniques available to you over your indicated time horizon.

Capital Needs Assessment and Playbook for a Targeted Geography

For investors with a stake in a specific place, we assess the capital gaps in your priority geography — city, region, or country — and build a playbook for deploying capital where it’s needed most.

Discuss a Playbook

Our approach

From diagnosis to action.

Our engagements follow one operating logic: identify the systemic issue, define what a healthier system looks like, diagnose the gap, choose the tools best suited to close it, and assess whether system health has improved. What investors learn feeds back into the diagnosis.

1Identify the systemic issue

ConsensusRelevanceEffectivenessUncertainty/Magnitude

Is the issue broad and material enough to merit investor focus?

2Define a healthier system

AdaptabilityClarityConnectivityDirectionality

What would a healthier, more resilient system look like?

3Diagnose the gap

Current vs. desired conditionWeakest characteristics

Which characteristics of system health are weakest today?

4Select tools and techniques

Field BuildingInvestment EnhancementOpportunity Generation

Which techniques best address the weakest characteristics?

5Assess system health

Company/portfolioIndustry/sectorSystem

Has system health improved as a result of collectively changed behavior?

A loop, not a checklistAssessment feeds back into diagnosis, so the choice of tools is revisited as system health changes. Adapted from the logic model in TIIP's (Re)Calibrating Feedback Loops.

Where investors actMainly at the company/portfolio and industry/sector levels, and directly at the system level through policy engagement.

Where outcomes are judgedAt the system level: are the underlying systems healthier and more resilient?

Client work

Join the leaders in system-level investing.

Our expertise has helped inform and support the strategies of pioneering institutions, including CalSTRS, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, University Pension Plan, Railpen, Surdna Foundation, Domini Impact Investments, and more.