Investing with purpose can help generate positive societal outcomes while potentially delivering attractive financial returns. At the 20th annual Toronto Global Forum, organized by the International Economic Forum of the Americas (IEFA), Deland Kamanga, Group Head, BMO Wealth Management, moderated the panel “Investing with Purpose”, exploring how better patient outcomes, reliable and affordable power and stronger supply chains can support financial returns while delivering wider societal benefits.
The panel featured:
Dr. Rafaèle Tordjman, Founder and CEO, Jeito Capital
Barbara Zvan, President and CEO, University Pension Plan Ontario
Emmanuel Lagarrigue, Partner, Global Co-Head of Climate Transition Strategy and Head of Sustainability, KKR
Virginie Morgon, Founding & Managing Partner, Ardabelle Capital
Geneviève Fortier, CEO, Promutuel Insurance.
Here are the highlights.
Connecting purpose with performance
For Kamanga, the discussion reinforced the importance of looking beyond the upfront costs in areas such as drug development, clean energy and resilient infrastructure. These investments address social and environmental challenges, but some are also becoming strategically important for businesses as aging populations, climate change and rising energy demand make alternative solutions increasingly important.
“Don’t think of it as a trade-off. Think about it from a long-term perspective,” he said.
Kamanga asked the panel whether investor attitudes are shifting and whether the perceived trade-off between returns and purpose-driven investing is beginning to disappear.
The responses suggested that purpose and performance remain closely connected, although the speakers approached that relationship differently. Barbara Zvan noted that pension plans are legally required to act in members’ best financial interests, which includes considering environmental and social factors that may affect investment performance.
Rafaèle Tordjman said her firm values the drug developers it backs based on the benefits their treatments deliver to patients and society, including from fewer hospital stays to people returning to work. Obesity treatments such as GLP-1 drugs and fertility treatments are just some of the major investment themes where benefits to patients and investors align.
For Emmanuel Lagarrigue, sustainability also makes good business sense. He noted that while electric buses can cost 50% to 80% more upfront, financing batteries and charging infrastructure differently can make them cost-neutral, or even cheaper, for operators. “The way we think about it is that there’s no trade-off,” he said.
Virginie Morgon brought a competitiveness lens to the discussion. The pandemic, wars, tariffs and repeated climate shocks have pushed corporate leaders to rebuild their supply chains to be more local and circular, not only for ethical reasons but also because doing so makes them more competitive. She noted opportunities to back the small and mid-sized suppliers that help those businesses use resources more efficiently, positioning purpose as a driver of stronger operations.
Weigh the wider impact of growth
As AI and energy infrastructure attract investment, the panel considered why financial metrics alone may not be enough to judge a project’s potential.
Fortier described how AI could improve productivity, customer experience and business processes, while also raising legitimate concerns about workforce change, privacy, trust and electricity consumption. Investors must weigh all of these together. “It’s not as if you could do one and not do the other,” she said.
Zvan noted that data centers and the reshoring of industry are driving sharp increases in electricity demand, making new and cleaner power sources a practical requirement. That demand is also widening the investment opportunity beyond wind and solar to include transmission, grid infrastructure and energy storage, while meeting it means balancing cleaner energy with reliability and affordability. “If you can solve all three of those, it makes your investment much more risk aware,” she said.
The wider consequences also extend to how infrastructure gets built and who benefits. Geneviève Fortier cited Hydro-Québec’s plan to invest $200 billion through 2035 in new generation capacity, transmission lines and grid upgrades. Because much of the development will take place on Indigenous lands, it will require agreements that deliver economic benefits to First Nations as well as to the province and society. “You can’t proceed without taking that into account,” she said.
Invest for the long term
The panel emphasized the importance of looking ahead to risks that could affect an investment’s performance over time, including climate-related losses and emerging cyber threats.
Fortier and Morgon used the insurance market to show how climate risk is already changing the outlook for investors. California, for instance, saw several major insurers withdraw from the market or reduce their coverage in 2023 and 2024 amid increasingly frequent wildfires and severe natural disasters, noted Fortier.
France could face a similar challenge, suggested Morgon, noting that without greater investment in climate adaptation, parts of the country could face significant insurability challenges in the future.
Morgon identified water access, treatment and quality as important investment themes going forward, citing agricultural water stress, industrial pollution and tighter regulation.
For Kamanga, recognizing these risks and opportunities requires a longer investment horizon, whether the investor is an institution or an individual. Speaking after the panel, he noted that pension plans and insurers ultimately invest on behalf of people whose financial goals extend into the future. He encouraged individuals to adopt that same discipline, cautioning that a shorter time horizon could increase risk and make those goals harder to achieve.
“Whether you’re 20 years old or 70 years old, you should be thinking longer term,” he said.