Baillie Gifford experiment case study

Baillie Gifford, an independent investment manager, introduced their Positive Change Fund team (aiming to deliver attractive long-term returns and a positive change by contributing towards a more sustainable future) to the Deep Transitions Lab.

The group conducted an experiment together, which took place over two segments.

• The first focused on the PCF portfolio (exploring DT concepts in practice and then focusing on analysing the food, energy, and mobility systems).
• The second was an assessment of individual companies

An experiment is an organised learning journey, rooted in Deep Transitions research, aimed to refine goal-setting, investment strategies, and processes to generate new insights and shift mindsets.

The case study outlines the methodology and highlights key outcomes, such as:

• A new approach to assessing the systems change impact of individual companies.
• The development of a stronger and more robust method for company assessments using both impact assessment criteria and academic knowledge.
• Two cases demonstrate how this approach works in practice.
• The DT method includes additional information to encourage companies to enhance their system change potential. It also creates an opportunity to locate other companies with system change impacts and move in the direction of a portfolio