The Sustainable Infrastructure Guidelines for Chinese International Contractors (SIG) are a voluntary guidance document developed by the China International Contractors Associations for Chinese enterprises engaged in infrastructure projects overseas to enhance sustainability performance across economic, social, environmental and governance aspects. The guidelines propose a broad set of sustainability indicators covering the entire life cycle from funding, planning, design, building, operation and maintenance to closure. The SIG may also serve as a tool for evaluation of sustainability on completed projects.

The Sustainability Bond Guidelines promote the integrity of the Sustainability Bond market through recommendations for transparency, disclosure, and reporting, outlining a clear process and disclosure for issuers, which investors, banks, underwriters, placement agents and others may use to understand the characteristics of any given Sustainability Bond. The evaluation of the use of proceeds represents the core of the Sustainability Bond Guidelines. They must exclusively apply to finance or re-finance a combination of both green and social projects. The Sustainability Bond Guidelines are based on a combination of the Green Bond Guidelines and the Social Bond Guidelines of the International Capital Market Association.

TREDIS is a transportation economics suite that helps transportation planners, and decision-makers calculate the economic impact, benefits and costs of proposed projects, programs and policies. The tool supports decision-making through economic impact analysis, cost-benefit analyses, financial analyses as well as freight and trade impact analyses. The software applies to passenger and freight transport via aviation, marine and rail modes, also including truck, car, bus, bicycle, and pedestrian travel, and can be used for deep analysis of a single project or simultaneous comparison of several projects. Impacts may be viewed at local, regional, state or national level.

SOURCE is a multilateral online platform to bring systemic change in the way governments define, develop and manage their sustainable infrastructure projects for both traditional procurement and Public Private Partnerships. It uses sector-specific questions sets covering all the stages of the project lifecycle and allowing for the definition of specific targets to fulfil the SDGs and Paris Agreement. The online tool includes a broad set of functionalities, including project team management, customizable project timeline and task management, document management, portfolio and project monitoring dashboards, consistency checks on project documentation, a Project Preparation Facilities Finder, knowledge management and a public pipeline for project promotion.

The Social Bond Principles are set of principles developed to promote integrity in the Social Bond market through guidelines that recommend transparency, disclosure, and reporting. The principles recommend a clear process and disclosure for issuers, which investors, banks, underwriters, placement agents and others may use to understand the characteristics of any given Social Bond. The evaluation of the use of proceeds represents the core of the Social Bond Principles. All designated social projects should provide clear social benefits, which will be assessed and, if possible, quantified by the issuer. Eligible project categories include affordable basic infrastructure, access to essential services, employment generation, food security and many more.

The Sustainable Asset Valuation (SAVi) helps policy makers and investors take informed decisions on infrastructure financing based on customized simulations. The tool forecasts how infrastructure projects will affect and be affected by the environmental, social and economic dynamics and simulates how different risk scenarios affect a project’s financial viability across its life cycle and how material externalities can affect future cash flows. Thereby, SAVi allows to evaluate the financial attractiveness of infrastructure projects across the life cycle, considering important environmental, social, economic and governance factors that are overlooked in traditional valuations, and to compare different infrastructure scenarios and their financial viabilities.

The Zofnass Economic Process Tool is a self-assessment platform that offers a fast and easy way to achieve preliminary quantification and monetization of sustainability externalities in infrastructure projects based on the Envision™ rating system. The tool provides information on the costs and benefits of (sustainable) infrastructure solutions and their externalities, which can be used to inform the design process of infrastructure projects and promote the implementation of sustainability strategies. Users introduce the values for evaluation themselves, using a comprehensive online form.

The Principles for Sustainable Insurance (PSI) provide global guidance on the integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks into insurance underwriting. The purpose of the tool is to foster a resilient insurance industry based on holistic and far-sighted risk management in which ESG issues are considered. Thereby, the PSI promote a risk aware world, where the insurance industry is trusted and plays its full role in enabling a healthy, safe, resilient and sustainable society. Progress reports by signatories are submitted annually. The Principles are part of the insurance industry criteria of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices and FTSE4Good.

The six Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) are a voluntary and aspirational set of investment principles that offer a menu of possible actions for incorporating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into investment practices. The tool not only aims to improve understanding the investment implication of ESG factors but also supports investors in incorporating these factors into their investment and ownership decisions. Investors can become signatories to the PRI. They then must report on their responsible investment activities annually.

The Environmental and Social Performance Standards of the International Finance Coalition (IFC) define IFC clients’ responsibilities for managing the environmental and social risks of their projects. The Performance Standards provide guidance on how to identify risks and impacts and are designed to help avoid, mitigate and manage risks and impacts as a way of doing business in a more sustainable way. Since 2012, the Standards apply to all IFC clients whose projects go through IFC’s initial credit review process.