The Sustainable Finance Podcast

More successful employees create financial value for their employers and career opportunities for themselves. Our focus in today’s episode is how Ownership Works supports increasing prosperity through shared ownership, and that’s the mission of this non-profit organization. Executive Director, Anna-Lisa Miller joins me and Gloria Mirrione, Executive Director, and Head of Sustainable Finance & Impa...

In his role as General Manager of Sustainability Solutions at Microsoft, Mark Kroese leads a team that drives product, customer and market development solutions that help Microsoft realize its goals of becoming a Carbon Negative company. Mark Fischel is the Carbon Product Lead at Novata. They are their launching their brand new tool, the Novata Carbon Navigator in January to radically improve the...

The Climate Bonds Initiative has identified five Hallmarks of a credible climate mitigation transition for companies. Today the SFP is fortunate to have Sean Kidney, CEO at Climate Bonds Initiative, as our guest to update our followers on how companies are using these Hallmarks and what climate mitigation action investors and their financial advisors can expect from companies in various sectors of...

“Policies and institutions that open opportunities for focus on people of color are not racist. They are not even an attempt to “level the playing field” after centuries of systemic racism. They are an effort to bring Black people onto the playing field of economic mobility after centuries of being locked out…” I’m quoting from a Forbes article published on Oct. 12th and written by Lenwood V. Long...

Companies in every sector of the global economy are discovering that the full spectrum of sustainability-focused challenges are more than their own and must be solved in collaboration with their partners in other businesses. My guest is this episode of the SFP is Karthik Balakrishnan, Co-Founder and President of Actual, which has been featured in Fast Company, Forbes and Business Insider among man...

I’ve had the privilege to work with both of today’s podcast guests as leaders of their company, the first to launch a Responsible Investment fund and still a leader in the field. Calvert Research and Management is part of Morgan Stanley Investment Management today and traces its roots to Calvert Investments, which was founded in 1976. The SFP is privileged to welcome Emily Chew and Anthony Eames t...

Climate Aligned is building the world's first human-led, AI-assisted platform with the ability to analyze any bond issuer, borrower, bond or loan against any standard, framework, taxonomy or expert opinion in a fully customizable way, thanks to Generative AI. I’m excited to have Krista Tukiainen, Climate Aligned’s Chief Commercial Officer as my guest for this episode of the SFP. Building on the ne...

My guests today are coming down on the side of a more positive outcome for a sustainable climate transition rather than the doomsday opinions we read in the media daily. Anthony Hobley, Senior Strategic Advisor and Jakob Thomae, Project Director launched the IPR Forecast Policy Scenario (FPS) 2023 during Climate Week in NYC. IPR, the Inevitable Policy Response (IPR), is a climate transition foreca...

Today's podcast guests are a trio of leaders engaged in community economic development. John Holdsclaw IV, Gloria Mirrione and Harold Pettigrew, Jr. are on a mission to lift the banner of "Capital Meets Purpose". I will ask Harold and John to share their thoughts on this theme for the upcoming 39th annual Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) conference next month. Followers of The Sustainable Finance...

A new regime in financial policy and market behavior is unfolding and the patterns of the past decade are facing a period of adjustment. Schroders Asset Management believes this new regime will be driven by several themes, including decarbonization, deglobalization and demographic change. In today’s Episode Three of this Schroders and SFP series we’re going to zero in on the impact deglobalization...

Motivated by a lack of adequate and safe mobility systems and the potential of smart mobility to drastically reduce carbon emissions in emerging markets, Tonderai Njowera has embarked on a journey to catalyze investments in renewable energy and smart mobility in the South African and other emerging markets. Tonderai is a certified expert in sustainable finance as well as a civil and water engineer...

Chrissa Pagitsas has been a leader in sustainable finance industry and product development for twenty years. She launched the Fannie Mae Green Financing Business which, under her leadership, issued over $51 billion in Green Bonds, becoming the largest issuer globally. Chrissa is a trusted board member to non-profit and for-profit companies and a sought-after speaker on catalyzing business transfor...

Why should VC firms require the entrepreneurs they fund to track ESG metrics from day one and for the long-term? We’re excited to bring you Part 2 of our series with Novata, the platform built to empower private companies and investors to collect, analyze and report relevant ESG data. Our guests are Elizabeth Meyer, Chief Legal Officer at Novata and Rosalind Bazany, Partner and Head of ESG and Imp...

Today we’re going to learn why the German federal state of Baden-Wurttemberg passed a law on sustainable investing that blacklisted US Treasury Bonds as a portfolio holding. My SFP guest is Arnim Emrich, head of treasury in Baden-Wurttemberg. Emrich and his team manage 35Billion Euros of capital market debt and the state’s 10Billion Euros sovereign fund for future pension obligations. They also la...

My first conversation with Helene Huby, Co-founder and CEO at The Exploration Company, was “out of this world.” Huby’s company is creating a reusable space vehicle with amazing possibilities. The Nyx will be modular, reusable and in-orbit refuellable, carrying cargo and, in the longer run, humans. The first prototype will launch in 2024, and Huby plans to be servicing the international space stati...

Building a global capital market that accelerates universal access to safe water and sanitation is WaterEquity’s mission and is at the core of global sustainable development. In addition to being a key determinant of improved health outcomes, gender equality and resilience to climate change, it is also a driver of overall economic growth. I’m very pleased to have Paul O’Connell, President of Water...

Dr. Selin Calik published “The Renaissance of Smart Energy: The Nexus of COVID 19 and Green Energy” in 2022, which describes the connection between Covid-19 and Climate Change with an emphasis on research in the field of clean and green energy. Calik is a Climate Change Scientist and Green Energy Observer for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. She is also an active member of the UK’s I...

In April of 2023 the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) launched the Finance for Net Zero (FiNZ) Action Plan to catalyze Asia’s net zero transition and decarbonization activities. My guest today is Helge Muenkel, CSO at DBS Bank, and we’re going to talk about why establishing a roadmap for sustainability reporting by key financial institutions is a critical part of the (FiNZ). Helge and I will...

This is the second program in a series the Sustainable Finance Podcast (SFP) is doing with Schroders. We’re taking an in-depth look at what Schroders is calling a global reset in the markets and the emergence of a new regime in financial policy and market behavior. My guests today are Mark Lacey, Head of Global Resource Equities, and Carol Storey, Active Ownership Manager. In the first program, Ep...

Gravitas Infinitum / Carbotura was among the world’s top 50 most innovative new companies in 2021. It uses industrial-scale modular facilities to eliminate Municipal Solid Waste and create renewable fuels, carbon sequestering critical minerals, and nano-biomaterials. In the process it delivers highly efficient, large scale carbon capture for positive environmental impact. Tyler Wood is a Director...

Grain Ecosystem is a venture backed business spun out of Schneider Electric for the purpose of generating a high-quality carbon offset supply. The firm aims to support project developers in sequestering as much carbon as possible, which means bringing together the funding and stakeholders needed to drive projects forward with a focus on biochar. Today I’m excited to have Jason Dodier, Co-Founder o...

My guests today exemplify an extraordinary partnership in the ESG landscape. Hamilton Lane, a private markets investment management firm with nearly $857 billion in AUM and AUA has a long track record of review and consideration of ESG factors. In 2021 Hamilton Lane joined a consortium of non-profit and for-profit partners to help found Novata, a software platform with the goal to make it easy and...

Hello everyone and welcome to today’s episode. Many of you listening in today might be hearing the term Nature Based Solutions for sustainable investing and wondering what that means or thinking “I’m a finance person, not a scientist.” In today’s episode you’re going to learn how bringing science into your investment strategies will help you take your business to the next level. Our panel of exper...

Nikita Singhal is Co-Head of Sustainable Investment & ESG at Lazard Asset Management, a $234.6 billion global asset management firm. She oversees the firm’s Sustainable Investment and ESG Integration strategy, leads client engagements and thought leadership on ESG topics. Nikita has been working in the field of sustainable investing for over 14 years at institutions such as IFC (World Bank Group),...

Mike Wallace is an internationally recognized expert in the ESG & sustainability field. For over 25-years he has been advising corporations, non-profits, and government agencies on the development and implementation of sustainable business and investment strategies. As Chief Decarbonzation Officer at Persefoni (CDO) he works with corporate executive teams to help them understand sustainability ris...