The Sustainable Finance Podcast

Insurance carriers are the second largest money management group and one of the most impactful regulatory industries on earth. How is Premiums for the Planet, a membership-based collective action movement, motivating this industry to incorporate more sustainable investment strategies? Join Founder and CEO Brad Stevenson as we discuss how the collective’s companies are challenging the investment pr...

In 2023 Terra Alpha Investments financed 82% less carbon emissions, 88% less water usage and 35% less waste generation through the firm’s investment portfolio. Tim Dunn is Founder and CIO of this firm that invests in forward thinking companies that are profitably leading the transition toward a sustainable global economy. Terra Alpha engages directly with portfolio companies through proxy voting,...

Private equity, blended finance, new regulations like the SFDR, lack of infrastructure, government instability: these are just some of the challenges investors face in financing and executing impact projects in emerging markets. My guest today, Paul Hailey, Head of Impact and ESG at responsAbility Investments AG, walks us through how the company’s projects in South America and North Africa are ach...

As companies and investors continue to navigate the 3D-reset themes of decarbonization, deglobalization and demographic change, Schroders believes that it is important to consider the practical investment implications of these broad trends. In 2024, Schroders sees investors transitioning from simply thinking of ESG risk management and integration to an increasing focus on sustainable opportunities...

James Kench is Head of Insurance at Kita, the company that insures carbon. He is a global finance, (re)insurance & climate risk executive with a career spanning Europe, Asia & the Americas. Carbon insurance provided by Kita unlocks financing and de-risks projects in the carbon markets, a source of investment opportunity and potential liability when not insured. Carbon insurance contracts issued by...

Bair Financial Planning has been offering investment and lifestyle financial advisory services to clients for 20 years! Initially focused on the LGBTQ community in San Diego, CA, Marci Bair broadened the scope of her firm's life planning and asset management advice when Victor Orozco joined the firm a decade ago. They now have clientele across multiple family generations and offers sustainable and...

Courtney Thomas is a passionate advocate for social and economic justice. In her role as Senior Policy Analyst at HOPE Policy Institute, Courtney coordinates and leads public policy efforts to advance economic opportunities for working families in the Deep South. She uses research, outreach and advocacy to advance fair and equitable public policies that center on the experiences of black, brown an...

Craig Coulter has 12 years of experience with EY delivering strategy and advisory services to clients large and small with a focus on the environment and sustainability. In Episode 259 of The Sustainable Finance Podcast (SFP) he and I discuss his passion for building businesses, organizations and teams that incorporate sustainability to make it business as usual. Craig is currently responsible for...

In 2023, FuelCell Energy commenced operations of the company’s Tri-gen system for Toyota North America at the Port of Long Beach, California, where neighboring communities have been significantly impacted by decades of emissions from the ships, trucks, locomotives, and cargo-handling equipment. Betsy Schaefer, FuelCell Energy’s Chief Marketing & Sustainability Officer joins me for this SFP episode...

Investors and asset managers need quality data that they can compare across companies, industries, and indexes. The critical need for convergence and harmonization of ESG frameworks and metrics globally is the topic of today’s program. Laura Callaghan, Associate Director of ESG Services at Novata, is going to take us behind the scenes into the Service team’s important role in moving Novata beyond...

Alison Taylor, Clinical Professor at NYU Stern School of Business and one of the world’s most compelling experts on business ethics, has a new book, and after having read it, I recommend it to every executive, entrepreneur and student I speak to. In Higher Ground, with laser focus and insight, she lays out the reasons why businesses can no longer treat ethics as “a legal and reputational defense m...

Today’s SFP guest believes that in the future energy will be clean, resilient, abundant, and free. Harnessing that energy will allow us to preserve wild places and protect the magic of our natural world, while propelling us to the far reaches of our solar system and beyond. Nick Davis, CEO at GridMarket.com, believes that we all have a role to play in the giant leaps that AI and energy abundance w...

Andrea Longton is an award-winning author and professional social justice investor. She has raised over 1 billion dollars for social justice investments in the United States and has advised on another 1.5 billion dollars worldwide. Andrea’s new book is titled The Social Justice Investor: Advance Your Values while Building Wealth and will be released this month on April 23rd. Her professional exper...

Today’s podcast guest loves to speak with investors and asset managers interested in the sustainable food space. Shila Wattamwar, Founder and CEO of Radiant Global Advisory, is an adviser to companies that are optimizing logistics, reducing supply chain costs and emissions and fostering community engagement as sustainability goals they expect will produce greater ROI and profitability and help the...

Tee Ganbold is Co-Founder and CEO at Improvability AI, the Generative AI improvement engine for sustainability. She was Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer of Clear AI, optimizing supply chains for sustainability utilizing knowledge graphs. Improvability AI enables companies to enhance their sustainability focus and increase profits through the power of AI automation - intuitive AI agents and appl...

Sustainable Impact investing is at an inflection point in 2024, so where do Radhika Shroff and her Nuveen Private Equity team see value in this type of investing? Their investment thesis is rooted in addressing two critical and inextricably linked problems — inequality and climate change. They believe these problems create attractive impact investment opportunities outside of traditional developed...

Many claim that ESG is dead. Our SFP guest today said that “ESG is broken” at NYC Climate Week last year. But ESG teams need ESG software in the same way that finance teams need finance software. Makes sense, but where should businesses start on this software adoption journey? Today followers of the SFP are going to hear from Marjella Lecourt-Alma, CEO and Co-Founder of Datamaran about “Smart ESG”...

Amina Zakhnouf is an Investment Officer at the Fund for Innovation in Development (FID), which is hosted by the French government to fight poverty and promote sustainable economic growth. Zakhnouf supported the creation of the Hellenic Development Bank in Greece and backed the Tunisian government’s effort to create a favorable investment ecosystem for start-ups. Amina is also a Co-Founder of “I’m...

As companies and investors continue to navigate the 3D-reset themes of decarbonization, deglobalization and demographic change, Schroders believes that it is important to consider the practical investment implications of these broad trends. In 2024, Schroders sees investors transitioning from simply thinking of ESG risk management and integration to an increasing focus on sustainable opportunities...

Lenka Martinek belongs to an eclectic team of sustainability investing professionals that are partners at SMS & Nordis Capital. She is a portfolio manager in partnership with an economist from the International Monetary Fund, an environmental engineer and the former CIO of a global asset management firm. Their partnership includes a shared belief that financial markets are an important sphere of i...

According to the United Nations desertification caused by climate change affects a third of Earth’s land surface. This is a growing problem for the 250 million people directly impacted by the degradation of formerly fertile land. Wissal Ben Moussa, Co-founder and Chief Agricultural Officer of Sand to Green, says this Moroccan startup can transform a patch of desert into a sustainable and profitabl...

When you’re the third-generation co-owner of a company that manufactures plastic bags for your family’s financial well-being, the idea of re-creating your business operations model to be more environmentally friendly and sustainable could easily be the stuff of nightmares, cold sweats and sanity checks. For Trent Romer and Clear View Bag Co., however, sustainability planning has been a way to redu...

What sustainability progress have banks and insurers made in the last two years, given the role of financial institutions as a core component of the economy, and bearing in mind their responsibility to uphold the rigour and resilience of their risk management? Equally significant is their social responsibility to offer vital financial support to the development of sustainable global economies. In...

ScopeFour Capital is an investment management firm focused solely on climate solutions in the public equity markets. Founder and CEO Heather Beatty is committed to climate solution investment and the great re-imagination of economic growth by directing capital towards “drawdown”, when levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to steadily decline, thereby stopping human-i...

Climate-focused philanthropy has increased significantly in recent years, but it’s still insufficient relative to the size and urgency of the challenge. Randall Kempner is a senior advisor at the Energy and Environment Program of The Aspen Institute, and a global leader in advancing policy solutions for critical issues. He joins me today to discuss why less than two percent of global philanthropy...