Impact Investing
Climate Finance | January 26, 2023
Voluntary carbon markets face a reckoning over credit quality and environmental impact
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 25 – Are carbon markets a key pillar of climate finance, or an empty exercise in double-counting and greenwashing? After soaring …
photo: World Economic Forum
Capitalism Reimagined | January 19, 2023
What if they threw an elite global forum in a Swiss ski resort and no one cared?
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 19 – At least for those of us who aren’t there, it is definitely cooler to skip Davos than to attend …
John Podesta, Senior Advisor to the President for Clean Energy (photo: ImpactAlpha)
Muni Impact | January 17, 2023
Overheard at the Public Finance Conference: Investment opportunities in Emerging Market America
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 17 – A computer glitch that snarled air traffic last week presented a fitting backdrop as government and finance leaders gathered …
Impact Investing | January 13, 2023
Impact Briefing: How the Milken Institute is connecting disadvantaged communities with critical project development financing
The historic buildout of low-carbon and sustainable infrastructure is on. Spurring this climate action is hundreds of billions in federal spending in the …
Impact Investing | January 6, 2023
How Dollaride is electrifying ‘dollar vans’ in New York’s transit deserts (podcast)
A collaboration between local tech and climate entrepreneurs is aiming to improve the livelihoods of dollar van drivers and decarbonize urban transport by …
Impact Investing | January 5, 2023
Three ways product resale is making the circular economy sexy
You and me baby, we’re nothing but animals trying to deny our preternatural reuse instincts by confining ourselves to linear economy rules. And …
Climate Finance | January 4, 2023
Last year’s policy progress sets this year up for climate action
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 4 – The Inflation Reduction Act is the climate investment gift that promises to keep on giving. The law represents perhaps …
ESG | January 2, 2023
A baker’s dozen of shareable studies that make the case for ESG
ESG will continue to be a hot button in 2023. But research over the past year showed that environmental, social and governance investments …
Impact Investing | December 21, 2022
Collaborative Fund raises $200 million fund for materials, ingredients, energy and supply chains.
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 21 – Designer Stella McCartney is anchoring the Collab SOS fund and is also a customer to many of the fund’s …
Community Finance | December 20, 2022
Treasury investments in CDFIs pave the way for strong impact and financial returns
Almost two years ago, we mourned what appeared to be a lost opportunity for community lenders and impact investors. We were wrong! ECIP …
Impact Investing | December 20, 2022
General Atlantic’s BeyondNetZero mobilizes $3.5 billion climate fund
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 2 – BeyondNetZero is the global growth equity firm’s first fund dedicated to climate tech. It invests in innovative growth companies …
Inclusive Economy | December 20, 2022
Gratitude Railroad leans in to inclusive capitalism
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 20 – Shay Pink didn’t pull her punches earlier this year when she met Amy King, the CEO of Seattle-based Pallet, which …
ESG | December 19, 2022
Elon’s reputation tanks along with his credibility on ESG
Crypto-evangelist Dan McArdle was apparently peeved with ESG when he tweeted: “Clothes dryers in the US use more energy than all bitcoin mining… …
Policy Corner | December 14, 2022
The case of the suddenly missing trillions in ESG investments
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 14 – It’s an ESG whodunnit. Sustainable investment assets in the U.S. totaled $17.1 trillion in 2020, according to US SIF. …
Impact Investing | December 12, 2022
‘Net energy’ breakthrough fuels the race to commercialize fusion power
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 13 – Net energy is the starting line. The race for commercial fusion energy is on. Creating a net energy gain …
Maria Kozloski, Rockefeller Foundation
Sponsored | December 12, 2022
Investing in financial innovations to narrow the racial wealth gap
What if you made it much easier for workers of color to become business owners, and thus build wealth much faster? What if …
Agents of Impact | December 9, 2022
Eric Berlow, Vibrant Data Labs: Visualizing the flows of climate finance
“I love complexity,” says Berlow, founder of Vibrant Data Labs, a “social impact data science” group. An ecologist and data nerd, Berlow spent …
Climate Finance | December 8, 2022
Move over climate, here come biodiversity disclosures
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 8 – Even as a mandatory climate disclosure rule proposed by U.S. regulators hits speed bumps, efforts are underway to require …
Blockchain/AI/IoT | December 5, 2022
What OpenAI’s new chatbot knows about impact investing
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 5 – You may be pleased to learn that our new artificial-intelligence overlords are hip to impact investing. Take a look …
Source: Amplify ESG
Policy Corner | December 5, 2022
Pro-ESG forces rally to confront backlash against corporate accountability, workers rights and risk management
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 5 – It took a while, but advocates for the integration of environmental, social and governance factors in investment decisions are …
Photo credit: Koolboks, an Aruwa Capital portfolio company
Impact Investing | December 5, 2022
Nigeria’s Aruwa Capital raises more than $20 million for its first gender-lens fund
ImpactAlpha, December 5 – Aruwa Capital launched in 2019 to invest in Nigeria’s small and mid-sized businesses and help them build more inclusive …
graph drawing with pencil and bar chart analysis Business concept
Impact Management | December 5, 2022
For comparability’s sake, let’s really move impact measurement from outputs to outcomes
Designing meaningful, appropriate and comparable impact investment performance instruments that do not stop at outputs, but get all the way to outcomes, was …
Impact Investing | December 2, 2022
TPG Rise’s $7.3 billion climate plan takes shape
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 2 – Jim Coulter has gotten climate religion. Since taking the helm of TPG’s impact-focused Rise fund last year, Coulter has …
Impact Investing | November 30, 2022
TPG seeds Rubicon Carbon’s carbon marketplace with $300 million
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 30 – Private equity giant TPG is the latest player to tackle the opportunity – and challenge – of buying and …
Muni Impact | November 28, 2022
Investor demand for Atlanta’s $369 million ‘social bond’ cuts city’s interest payments
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 28 – Under the banner of “Moving Atlanta Forward,” the city raised $410 million in general obligation bonds this month, including …
Policy Corner | November 23, 2022
For pension fund managers, Department of Labor puts ESG back on the table – again
ImpactAlpha, Nov.23 – Cannot! Can so! Just as some states are trying to block so-called ESG investing, the U.S. Department of Labor has …
Return on Inclusion | November 21, 2022
VC Include’s Bahiyah Yasmeen Robinson on three drivers of inclusion alpha (podcast)
ImpactAlpha, November 21 – Bahiyah Yasmeen Robinson is nearly one-third of the way toward her goal of seeding 100 women and historically underrepresented fund …
Impact Investing | November 21, 2022
Walmart workers are ‘Still Broke’: The limits of socially conscious capitalism (Q&A)
Back in 2003, journalist Rick Wartzman was overseeing the business section of the Los Angeles Times. His team produced a Pulitzer Prize-winning series …
Climate Finance | November 17, 2022
From carbon counting to carbon accounting: The case for Emissions Liability Management
“There does not yet exist the capacity,” Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith warned at last month’s Breakthrough Energy Summit in Seattle, for almost any …
Impact Investing | November 16, 2022
Energy Impact Partners seals $485 million early stage climate fund
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 16 – Energy Impact Partners’ Frontier Fund invests in big-bet climate startups that have proved their decarbonization technology and are poised …
Climate Finance | November 15, 2022
New narrative of climate action: Unstoppable progress and immense opportunity
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 15 – It has become fashionable to dismiss global climate confabs like COP27 as so much “blah blah blah.” But for …
Dealflow | November 11, 2022
ImpactAlpha Deal Spotlight: Oversubscribed impact funds
ImpactAlpha, November 11 — In a challenging year for raising capital, impact funds are bucking the trend. Impact-focused climate funds from large private …
Impact Investing | November 10, 2022
VoLo Earth raises $90 million for debut climate tech early-stage fund
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 10 – Snowmass Village, Colo.-based VoLo Earth launched in 2020 to invest in early stage climate deals across electricity, mobility, buildings, …
Climate Finance | November 10, 2022
The Rockefeller Foundation, Bezos Earth Fund, and U.S. tap private sector for energy transition funds
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 10 – Climate envoy John Kerry and the two foundations laid out plans for an Energy Transition Accelerator to generate funding …
ESG | November 8, 2022
Anticipating election wins, conservative politicians escalate attacks on ESG ‘collusion.’
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 8 – Republicans are feeling emboldened as Americans head to the polls for today’s midterm elections. Just days ago, a group …
The Pyramid of Khafre lit up for COP27
Climate Finance | November 7, 2022
With progress on ‘loss and damages,’ COP27 may exceed low expectations
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 7 – No one has been expecting much from this year’s COP27 climate summit. Not the island nations and African countries …
Source: Shutterstock
Impact Investing | November 5, 2022
Social and environmental crises drive assets to impact – and to ImpactAssets
As the Covid pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement laid bare the vast inequalities and tensions in the US and beyond, impact …
Agents of Impact | November 4, 2022
Mia Mottley, Barbados: Shaping the global finance agenda.
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 4 – Barbados is an island nation of just 166 square miles and less than 300,000 inhabitants. But its leader, Mia …
Impact Investing | November 3, 2022
A new kind of carbon credit incentivizes fossil fuel producers to ‘keep it in the ground’
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 3 – ‘Keep it in the ground’ has long been a rallying cry for climate activists. A new company is creating …
Impact Investing | November 2, 2022
What’s at stake for climate, ESG and impact investors in the U.S. midterm elections
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 2 – The annual global climate summit known as COP27, this year in Egypt, will coincide with next week’s midterm elections …
Image credit: Patagonia
Policy Corner | November 2, 2022
Pursuing environmental justice through the Inflation Reduction Act
The Inflation Reduction Act is a historic investment in marginalized communities on the frontlines of climate change. However, the bill also links renewable …
Aaron Samuels and Brian Hollins | Photo by Collide Capital.
Return on Inclusion | October 31, 2022
Collide Capital raises $66 million to back early-stage diverse founders
ImpactAlpha, October 31 — New York-based Collide Capital has raised $66 million to invest in early-stage Black, Latino and female founders “we believe …
Impact Voices | October 27, 2022
Can’t tell the players without a scorecard: Sorting out ESG, impact and sustainability
The Land of ESG is embroiled in a two-front war. Identifying the combatants and their arguments may help practitioners keep track of the …
Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt
Catalytic Capital | October 26, 2022
Creative finance is needed to plug gaps in global climate funding – and to rescue COP27
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 26 – Climate action is facing mighty headwinds just two weeks before the COP27 global climate summit kicks off in Sharm …
Impact Investing | October 24, 2022
Lowercarbon doubles down on fusion energy with $250 million fund
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 25 – As global economies electrify and new solutions like carbon capture and water desalination come online, power demand could triple …