To advance long-termism and incentives for sustainable development, GISD sought to provide investors with a longer-term sustainability-oriented benchmark. Based on GISD's sustainable development investing (SDI) definition, GISD commissioned research on an SDI-aligned listed equity index. 

The research found that hypothetical SDI-aligned indices have similar risk-return characteristics to a traditional market index, while the constituents of the SDI-aligned index contribute more to the achievement of the SDGs through their products and services as well as through their sustainable business practices.