Institutional Shift
Zurich, Switzerland
Europe | March 28, 2022
Acquisitions in Europe reflect investors’ appetite for private debt in emerging markets
ImpactAlpha, March 28 – A trio of Swiss impact investors launched two decades ago with similar missions of boosting financial inclusion in emerging …
Institutional Shift | April 13, 2021
Institutional Shift: Charting the flow of capital through dairy waste, SPACs and the end of externalities
ImpactAlpha, Apr. 13 – Institutional investors took awhile “to get comfortable with the fact that we were going to process manure and urine and …
Institutional Shift | December 18, 2020
A roadmap for building a financial system resilient to future disruptions
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 18 – The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed that financial systems are one disruption away from disaster. Financial markets’ commitment to shareholder primacy …
April 2019 White Hall JC Photography Christopher Lane
Good Business | November 3, 2020
Q&A: How ESG pioneer Amy Domini is finding impact alpha in ‘sustainable solutions’
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 3 – At an earlier peak of COVID pandemic, Domini Impact Investments launched a mutual fund that looked a little different than …
Dealflow | October 26, 2020
Mastercard deposits $20 million through CNote’s network of community development financial institutions
ImpactAlpha, October 26 – Mastercard’s has made a $20 million deposit with Oakland-based CNote to boost the lending power of community development financial …
2030 Finance | October 15, 2020
Legal & General burnishes ‘stewardship’ credentials with push for aggressive climate action
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 14 – Out: Quiet engagement with executives. In: naming and shaming recalcitrant corporations. As more institutional asset owners look for active …
Features | October 14, 2020
Asset managers compete on impact as investors move beyond ESG
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 14 – As passive ESG funds emerge as the hottest trend in financial services, active asset managers are touting their ‘impact …
Climate Finance | October 7, 2020
Helping companies make good on their commitments to stakeholders
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 7 – When 181 members of the Business Roundtable signed on to a new statement of corporate purpose a year ago, …
Dealflow | October 6, 2020
Salesforce stands up its second corporate impact fund at $100 million
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 6 – Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff is a vocal proponent of ‘stakeholder capitalism’ and the company was a pioneer in corporate …
Features | October 5, 2020
With policy prompts, private equity fund managers can drive social benefits, too
Against the backdrop of a global pandemic, an economy officially in recession, and a stock market that seems increasingly divergent from the experience …
Features | September 29, 2020
Bank of America issues $2 billion ‘equality progress’ bond to advance racial equity
ImpactAlpha, September 29 – Bank of America has issued a $2 billion bond to advance racial equity. Proceeds from the five-year bond will …
Impact Management | September 29, 2020
Laggards get booted from ESG club
ImpactAlpha Sept. 29 – S&P Global dropped companies generating more than 5% of their revenues from thermal coal from its environmental, social and …
Features | September 24, 2020
Pro-business has a new meaning now
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 24 – Please don’t call it pro-business. The operating environment created by the Trump administration is at odds with the growing …
Beats | September 24, 2020
DWS cuts back sustainable investing funds and teams in U.S. shakeup
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 24 – DWS Group, the $869 billion wealth manager spun out of Deutsche Bank two years ago, has cut back its …
Beats | September 10, 2020
UBS recommends sustainable investments across its client base
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 10 – UBS said today that it will make sustainable investments “the preferred solution” for clients of its 2.6 trillion global …
Features | September 10, 2020
Trade finance provides ‘systemic liquidity’ to emerging-market businesses in COVID crisis
In a world where innovation is revered, it can be easy to forget the value of tried and tested tools. When Covid-19 revealed …
Features | September 10, 2020
Impact On: Impact investing’s confident and compelling new narrative
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 10 – Every day, with their commitment and their capital, impact investors and other Agents of Impact are writing a new …
Conservation | September 9, 2020
Credit Suisse rolls out sustainable oceans equity fund
ImpactAlpha, September 9 – Credit Suisse is launching an investment fund this month to help clients invest in pollution prevention, the low-carbon transition …
2030 Finance | September 8, 2020
Daimler joins Europe’s green bond parade
ImpactAlpha, September 8 – German automaker Daimler has issued a €1 billion ($1.2 billion), 10-year bond to transition to clean cars. Daimler’s bond …
Beats | September 2, 2020
BlackRock: The case for impact in public equities
Public equity markets have historically been overlooked in the impact investing space, traditionally a domain for credit and private market financing. We see …
Asia | August 26, 2020
Japan’s Hulic Co. issues bond that punishes for missed environmental impact targets
ImpactAlpha, August 26 – An increasing number of sustainability-linked loans reward companies with lower interest rates if they meet environmental and social milestones …
Beats | August 10, 2020
Bringing ESG strategies to private markets to boost value and impact
ImpactAlpha, Aug. 10 – Public market investors increasingly are deploying ESG, or environmental, social and governance, investing strategies to manage risks and opportunities …
Beats | August 10, 2020
Corporate collaboration: Microsoft backs Energy Impact Partners to speed the low-carbon transition
ImpactAlpha, August 10 – The first investment from Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund last month backed not just climate friendly tech, but an innovation …
Beats | July 23, 2020
Investors find common cause in pushing back against Trump’s anti-ESG rules
ImpactAlpha, July 23 –Investors may debate the merits of competing sustainability frameworks, or which environmental or social factors are truly material to corporate …
Impact Tech | July 20, 2020
Corporates turn to strategic investments to drive sustainable innovation
When Amazon announced its $2 billion Climate Pledge Fund to facilitate the transition to a low-carbon economy, it became the latest in a …
Policy Corner | July 14, 2020
Trump administration seeks to turn back the ESG tide
ImpactAlpha, July 14 – Investors are flocking to funds keyed to environmental, social and governance factors, or ESG. The Trump administration is trying …
Canada | July 13, 2020
Rally Assets to invest for impact in public and private markets
ImpactAlpha, July 13 – Toronto-based advisory firm Rally Assets launched the Rally Total Impact Fund to invest in both private and public impact …
Clean Energy | July 8, 2020
Generation Investment Management: COVID-19 creates a generational opportunity for sustainability
ImpactAlpha, July 8 – How and where we live. How we work. What we want – and need – to consume. The global pandemic has …
Dealflow | July 1, 2020
Netflix to move $100 million in cash deposits to lenders in Black communities
How companies deploy their cash reserves is becoming an issue of governance, the ‘G’ in ESG.
Beats | June 25, 2020
Life imitates art as hedge fund manager Jeff Ubben launches public-market impact fund
ImpactAlpha, June 24 – This season’s plotline on Billions, Showtime’s saga of wealth and corruption co-created by financial journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin, finds Wendy …
Features | June 18, 2020
Pricing for impact: How Agents of Impact can move from bluster to bold action
Can impact investing chip away at systemic dysfunction? Can deploying financial capital to achieve positive social, environmental and economic outcomes make a dent …
Beats | May 28, 2020
Corporate executives are suddenly talking ESG on quarterly earnings calls
ImpactAlpha, May 28 – Environmental, social and governance, or ESG, issues are getting more airtime this earnings season as investors seek out healthy …
Beats | May 26, 2020
Focus on workers, customers and governance drive ESG outperformance amid COVID uncertainty
ImpactAlpha, May 26 – Sustainable funds outperformed their conventional peers in the first quarter downturn and held their own in the April bounce …
Climate Finance | May 21, 2020
Realizing the risk of ignoring shareholder climate resolutions
ImpactAlpha, May 21 – Massive flooding in Midland, Michigan on Wednesday threatened to release chemicals from a Dow chemical complex, where products ranging …
2030 Finance | May 19, 2020
JPMorgan shareholders rally support to oust Exxon’s ex-CEO from board
ImpactAlpha, May 19 – As companies get better at defecting shareholder resolutions, there is one vote they can’t duck: board elections. It’s rare …
Beats | May 12, 2020
Stretch goal for foundations: Shift power, as well as assets, for the post-COVID economy
ImpactAlpha, May 12 – A handful of philanthropic foundations have committed themselves to align 100% of their endowments with their social impact missions. Even …
Climate Finance | April 28, 2020
‘Stewardship’ under scrutiny as shareholder season gets started
ImpactAlpha. April 28 – Even before the COVID crisis, this year’s annual general meeting season was shaping up as pivotal. The springtime ritual …
Institutional Shift | April 23, 2020
Countries and companies tap fixed-income market with ‘social bonds’ for COVID relief
ImpactAlpha, Apr. 23 – Governments are not the only source of quick liquidity in the COVID crisis. Countries and corporations are tapping a growing …
Beats | April 22, 2020
Goldman Sachs sees rise of the “S” in ESG investing
ImpactAlpha, Apr. 22 – It’s not that the ‘E’ in ESG investing is taking a back seat. “It’s more that the ’S’ is …
Beats | April 16, 2020
Four ways for universal owners to live up to their name in the COVID recovery
Stewards of capital must become the stewards of a new form of capitalism. The simulations and scenarios of central bankers and government regulators, …
Beats | April 15, 2020
The Sustainable Investing Challenge has become a leading indicator of talent and ideas
ImpactAlpha, Apr. 15 – MBA programs generally teach students what’s achievable using common investment tools like venture capital, private equity and debt. Business (and …
Beats | April 15, 2020
Resilience and disruption: Agents of Impact share lessons from the pandemic
Editor’s note: It seems the coronavirus pandemic could bring out either the worst or the best in us. The clear intent of the …
Beats | April 14, 2020
Sustainable investments are growing, and outperforming, in a volatile market
ImpactAlpha, Apr. 14 – Companies that merely pay lip service to stakeholders risk exposure in a crisis. Companies that take care of their …
Beats | April 9, 2020
Five investment strategies to mitigate systemic risks before the next pandemic
As we watch unemployment numbers rise and markets flounder, it is painfully clear how pandemics not only impact individuals’ health and well-being, but …
Beats | March 25, 2020
Generation Q&A: How the pandemic strengthens the case for sustainable investing
ImpactAlpha, Mar. 25 – Health and well-being. Remote work and collaboration. Resilient food systems. Long-term sustainable investment theses once relegated to the fringes …