Why VC investors need a 1.5°C goal for responsible tech
Like the 1.5°C goal for climate, responsible tech needs a clear North Star to guide investments and innovations. To build an ecosystem of …
-
Dealflow | Roodgally Senatus
Rize scores $14 million to reduce emissions and boost livelihoods for rice farmers
-
Dealflow | Roodgally Senatus
Mycocycle snags $2.2 million to recycle waste into fungi-based materials
-
Dealflow | ImpactAlpha
The Week’s Dealflow: May 10, 2024
-
Dealflow | Amy Cortese
Deal Spotlight: Carbon removal technology takes shape
-
Dealflow | Amy Cortese
Deal Spotlight: Caron removal technology takes shape
The Brief
Read by thousands of impact pros daily
Greetings Agents of Impact! 🔌 On this week’s Plugged In: Better, cheaper and faster climate impact. Climate volatility is here. Stonly Blue of …
Today’s brief
Featured: LP / GP
Why VC investors need a 1.5 degree Celsius goal for responsible tech. Artificial intelligence, quantum computing, robotics and other disruptive technologies are transforming labor productivity, human-machine and human-nature relations, and the social fabric. To deliver long-term value for themselves and society, tech innovators and investors need a North Star akin to the globally agreed goal of keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, argue Paul Fehlinger of Project Liberty Institute and Johannes Lenhard of Venture ESG. “Venture capitalists and limited partners need to align on processes, incentives and alternative investment models that go beyond the high-risk ‘move fast and break things’ mentality of the 2010s,” the authors write in a guest post in ImpactAlpha. The 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold for global warming is the result of four decades of research by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This North Star metric serves as a guide that uses science-based targets, incentives for climate-positive innovation, and penalties for negative externalities.
Dealflow: Agrifood Investing
Rize scores $14 million to reduce emissions and boost livelihoods for rice farmers. Rice is a staple crop for more than half of the global population. Demand is projected to double by 2050. But traditional rice cultivation practices, such as flooding fields, consume large amounts of water and release methane gasses. “Mitigating the environmental impact of rice cultivation is essential in the fight against climate change,” said Carmichael Roberts of Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Breakthrough, along with Wavemaker Impact, Temasek and Temasek’s GenZero, launched Rize last year to reduce the environmental footprint of rice cultivation. The Singapore-based startup helps small rice farmers implement sustainable farming practices, while lowering costs and increasing crop yields. “We are not just aiming to cut down 100 million tons of carbon emissions, we are also enhancing the economic stability of farmers, ensuring that improved farmer livelihoods and reduced emissions go hand-in-hand,” said Rize’s CEO Dhruv Sawhney.
Signals: Climate Finance
With more than $700 billion for fossil fuels, global banks retreat on climate pledges. “Energy pragmatism” is the new euphemism for continued investment in fossil fuels. Emboldened by high oil prices, producers are orchestrating megamergers and doubling down on oil and gas. Their enablers: global bankers. The world’s largest banks provided some $706 billion in financing for oil, gas and coal last year, even as the planet experienced its warmest 12 months since record-keeping began in 1850. JPMorgan Chase boosted its fossil fuel financing by $2 billion, to just under $41 billion for the year, making it once again the largest fossil fuel funder, according to a new report, “Banking on Climate Chaos.” “Major banks have squandered yet another year to take decisive and ambitious action on climate,” says Sierra Club’s Adele Shraiman, an author of the report released today.
Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent
Don’t miss these upcoming ImpactAlpha partner events:
Subscribe to ImpactAlpha
Find the alpha in impact.
- What comes with a subscription?
- The Brief: Award-winning daily newsletter
- Full Access: Unlimited, ad-free articles on ImpactAlpha.com
- Community: Exclusive Slack channels, calls and events
- Career Hub: Job board and career-building resources
- Data and tools: Open funds database, climate deal mapping, and more.
Must-reads on ImpactAlpha
Blockchain/AI/IoT | Paul Fehlinger and Johannes Lenhard
Why VC investors need a 1.5°C goal for responsible tech
Agrifood Tech | Roodgally Senatus
Rize scores $14 million to reduce emissions and boost livelihoods for rice farmers
circulareconomy | Roodgally Senatus
Mycocycle snags $2.2 million to recycle waste into fungi-based materials
Climate Finance | Lynnley Browning
Global banks back $706 billion in fossil fuels amid broader retreat on climate pledges
Impact Voices
Provocative opinions and insightful analysis from the community
Blockchain/AI/IoT | Paul Fehlinger and Johannes Lenhard
Why VC investors need a 1.5°C goal for responsible tech
Like the 1.5°C goal for climate, responsible tech needs a clear North Star to guide investments and innovations. To build an ecosystem of …
Creative Economy | Laura Callanan
The talk outpaces the walk: Three tough truths about impact investing
U.S. impact investors, we have a problem. In truth, there are several, and they all center around just how challenging it is to …
Impact Voices | Levi Zurbrugg
ESG will be key to supplying ‘green’ metals needed for the energy transition
Achieving net-zero emissions requires transitioning from a fossil-fueled economy to one energized through metals and materials. Nearly $2 trillion in investment in mining …
Catalytic Capital | Lisa Maria Braun
Pension funds help catalyze gender-lens investments in Asia
In the dynamic economic environment of the Asia-Pacific region, a significant investment opportunity is emerging: institutional investors’ capacity to champion gender equality through …
Catalytic Capital | Matt Onek
Inspiring impact at Mission Investors Exchange 2024 national conference
This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in impact investing. …
Inclusive Economy | Zoila Jennings
Changing how capital flows through communities to improve health
This series of guest posts is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange to present new ideas and perspectives in …
Impact Voices | Rochelle Witharana
Investment manager diversity matters when investing for health equity
Editor’s note: This article is part of a partnership between ImpactAlpha and Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) to present new ideas and perspectives in …
Latin America | Manuela Jiménez López
Latin American family offices add investing tools to philanthropic toolkit
Latin America is witnessing a transformative trend in family office philanthropy: the shift towards impact investing. Traditionally, philanthropy in the region has been …
Inclusive Economy | Maria Fernanda Diaz
How Fundación Bancolombia invests in Colombia’s small businesses for rural economic development
Rural economic development is a complex issue, including in Colombia. Rural regions are often culturally diverse areas, but have limited access to quality …
Deploy!
Following the sustainable and renewable energy transition to every community.
Deploy! | Rachel Reilly
10,000 Communities: With partners, Milken Institute is building a market to drive investment in community infrastructure
The recent announcement of 60 winners under the $7 billion Solar for All program capped the Environmental Protection Agency’s rollout of the Greenhouse …
Agents of Impact | Amy Cortese
Trenton Allen, Sustainable Capital Advisors: Bringing green infrastructure to Black and Brown communities (Q&A)
The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund is seeding green projects in primarily low-income communities by sending $27 billion through a network of nonprofit lenders. …
Deploy! | Amy Cortese
Lenders face a steep learning curve in deploying capital for green community infrastructure
Green project developers and project finance skills have always been in short supply. Now, with $27 billion in Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund awards …
Deploy! | James McIntyre
Greening down payment assistance to create better homes and better mortgages
Editor’s Note: Community Finance Brief is a newsletter from Matt Posner of Court Street Group, occasionally syndicated on ImpactAlpha. An enduring and perhaps …
Deploy! | Amy Cortese
For this Earth Day, the White House delivers a $7 billion message: Solar for All
“Cheaper, faster, better” is not just for affluent households or wealthy neighborhoods. Hundreds of millions in annual cost-savings from ever-cheaper solar energy, not …
Deploy! | Amy Cortese
Private sector sees opportunity in federal ‘green bank’ fund
The EPA’s $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund is intended to bring in at least seven times as much in private capital for …
Dealflow | Amy Cortese
Nexamp snags a half-billion for community solar expansion
The $520 million funding for Boston- and Chicago-based Nexamp comes amid growing demand for distributed renewable energy and tailwinds from federal climate funding. …
Deploy! | Andrea Riquier
With bridges, buses and bike lanes, Reconnecting Communities rebuilds ‘civic muscles’ along with neighborhoods
The Biden administration’s Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods program was conceived with goals as lofty as any in recent memory – to stitch together …
Muni Impact | Matt Posner and James McIntyre
Billions to trillions: How municipal bonds can multiply the reach of the US ‘green bank’
To achieve stated climate goals, the U.S. government is embarking on what should be the largest coordination of private and public capital aimed …
Ownership Economy
Strategies for navigating the ownership economy, wealth-creation and shared prosperity.
Ownership Economy | Roodgally Senatus
Colorado is demonstrating how states can accelerate conversions to employee ownership (video)
When Jared Polis became Colorado’s governor in 2019, he created an employee ownership office to incentivize and provide support for retiring owners to …
Ownership Economy | Roodgally Senatus
With ELBOs and EOTs, more business owners are exiting to employee ownership
Conversions to worker ownership can be complex for retiring business owners. They may be looking first to keep their enterprise going and second …
Ownership Economy | David Bank
Putting ownership and wealth-building strategies on center stage
“We are on the cusp of catalyzing an ownership movement,” WES’s Smitha Das and Gary Community Ventures’ Santhosh Ramdoss wrote on ImpactAlpha last …
Ownership Economy | Roodgally Senatus
Wanted: First-time fund managers with strategies to ‘Unlock Ownership’ in underserved communities
A group of mission-aligned investors is pooling philanthropic capital to provide early, flexible capital to help first-time managers launch funds to finance employee-ownership …
Ownership Economy | Amy Cortese
Wealth-building and community ownership in the next stage of The Great Deployment
Later this year, solar panels will be installed on the roof of the Brooklyn Army Terminal. Like thousands of emerging green projects across the …
Return on Inclusion | Roodgally Senatus
Sorenson Impact backs Redemption’s purchase of Holladay Bank to create a new Black-owned bank
ImpactAlpha, February 29 — The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., impact investor. In King’s last public address before he was assassinated, he …
Dealflow | Roodgally Senatus
Kachuwa Impact Fund scores $3.2 million to bring cooperatives to impact investing
ImpactAlpha, February 28 — Blake Jones, a “cooperative geek,” launched Kachuwa Impact Fund to bring the principles of cooperative ownership and governance to …
Inclusive Economy | Roodgally Senatus
Can commercial corridors + broad ownership build community wealth without displacement?
ImpactAlpha, February 22 — The West Side of San Antonio is looking forward to a thriving corridor of successful small businesses, restored buildings …
Ownership Economy | Michael Kramer
This sustainable investment firm is now governed by a perpetual purpose trust
As one of the earliest registered investment advisors exclusively dedicated to socially responsible, sustainable and impact investments since 1985, our financial advisor-owners of …
Career Hub
Build your impact career on ImpactAlpha
10 tips to speed your transition to an impact finance career
There is no denying that impact finance is one of the most sought after spaces in finance right now, but what does it …
How to get a job in impact investing
NEW Job Board
-
Social Impact Associate
-
Impact Genome
-
Anywhere
-
-
Investment Analyst
-
The Nature Conservancy
-
Washington, DC
-
-
Sales Development Representative
-
Novata
-
United States
-
-
Careers | ImpactAlpha
The Week’s Jobs: May 10, 2024
-
Careers | ImpactAlpha
The Week’s Jobs: May 3, 2024
-
Careers | ImpactAlpha
The Week’s Impact Jobs: March 22, 2024
-
Careers | Roodgally Senatus
The Week’s Impact Jobs: March 8, 2024
-
Careers | Roodgally Senatus
The Week’s Impact Jobs: March 1, 2024
-
Careers | ImpactAlpha
The Week’s Impact Jobs: February 23, 2024
-
Careers | Roodgally Senatus
The Week’s Impact Jobs: February 16, 2024
-
Careers | Roodgally Senatus
The Week’s Impact Jobs: February 9, 2024
Agents of Impact
Bold leaders. Taking action. Driving impact.
Blockchain/AI/IoT | Paul Fehlinger and Johannes Lenhard
Beats | Paul Fehlinger
Why VC investors need a 1.5°C goal for responsible tech
Smallholder Agriculture | Roodgally Senatus
Beats | Roodgally Senatus
Rize scores $14 million to reduce emissions and boost livelihoods for rice farmers
Impact Tech | Roodgally Senatus
Beats | Roodgally Senatus
Mycocycle snags $2.2 million to recycle waste into fungi-based materials
Climate Finance | Lynnley Browning
Beats | Lynnley Browning
Global banks back $706 billion in fossil fuels amid broader retreat on climate pledges
Agents of Impact | David Bank
Beats | David Bank
Ava DuVernay: Changing the narrative in Hollywood and beyond
Low-carbon transition | Amy Cortese
Beats | Amy Cortese
Deal Spotlight: Carbon removal technology takes shape
Come for the article. Stay for ImpactAlpha’s full package of high-value features.
Agents of Impact who subscribe get access to what makes ImpactAlpha invaluable:
- The Brief: Award-winning daily newsletter
- Full Access: Unlimited, ad-free articles on ImpactAlpha.com
- Community: Exclusive Slack channels, calls and events
- Career Hub: Job board and career-building resources
- Data and tools: Open funds database, climate deal mapping, and more.