The Brief

The Brief: Blood and Gore on the rocky road to the sustainable future

ImpactAlpha · September 17, 2025

Greetings Agents of Impact!

In today’s Brief:

  • Generation charts the rocky road to the sustainable future
  • Running data centers on excess renewable power  
  • Can precision fermentation displace plastics? 
  • Advisors Corner: Putting impact reports to work in client conversations

 Ten slides that chart the rocky road to the sustainable future. Generation Investment Management has been charting the steady advance of energy transition investment for nearly a decade. In 2023, the mood was jubilant, with Generation “calling a moment,” as we reported. The plunging prices for solar and batteries are still driving the energy transition in many parts of the world, as shown by one chart in this year’s report, and EV sales continue to surge (though growth in the US is more modest). Generation’s ninth annual “Sustainability Trends Report,” opens with a stark question amid the rollback of climate action and funding by the Trump administration: Does ambitious global climate action require the Americans? Or, can it survive without them? “The country that ought to be doing the most is now doing the least,” write Generation’s Al Gore and David Blood in the introduction. The US policy reversal has thrown industries into turmoil, causing the cancellation of an estimated $30 billion of investment in EV, battery, clean energy and other projects. A fossil-fuel axis of Russia, Saudi Arabia and the US could undermine the global climate talks in Brazil coming up in November, as they did at COP25 in 2019. The report, out today, also charts data centers’ demand for electricity, which is keeping fossil-fuel generation going, and the bursting of the green hydrogen bubble that has slowed the decarbonization of heavy industry.

  • Emerging markets’ energy path will be decisive. The US is the largest historical emitter of greenhouse gasses, and China is the biggest polluter. But future emissions growth will be driven by fast-growing developing markets. Individual countries like Pakistan and whole regions are adopting solar and other renewables as a cheap and clean pathway to energy security. “Action – or inaction – by the United States is no longer decisive in determining the long-term fate of the planet,” writes Generation. The next challenge is buildings, which generate more than a third of global emissions. Most new building is happening in emerging markets, many of which lack strong building codes and environmental standards.
  • The triumph of solar + storage. Solar’s remarkable trajectory of declining costs and soaring adoption has been clean energy’s biggest success story. Now, low-cost battery technology is filling in when the sun doesn’t shine making battery + storage a reliable, go-to energy source. In California, batteries now charge during the day and discharge in the early evening, displacing gas-fired power plants, notes Generation.
  • Ceding the automobile market, again. The US may be trying to put the kibosh on the growth of EVs, but China is churning out low cost, high quality EVs that are being snapped up around the world. The International Energy Agency forecasts that electric cars will make up one-quarter of all cars sold worldwide this year. Road transportation is by far the largest source of global emissions, dwarfing aviation and shipping, so the shift to EVs is critical for lowering emissions. 2
  • Keep reading, “Ten slides that chart the bumpy road to the sustainable future,” by Amy Cortese. 

Sponsored by Tideline

Scaling solutions: Allocator and market perspectives in impact fixed income. Fixed income is one of the largest allocations in the portfolios of institutional investors. It has been underutilized as a tool for impact investing, for want of fit-for-purpose frameworks for investor guidance, as well as its perceived lack of impact potency. A vast universe of impact opportunities remains untapped, leaving many allocators unable to fully align their portfolios with their impact objectives. In the next Compass Series webinar, Tideline builds on the firm’s report, “Scaling solutions: The fixed income opportunity hiding in plain sight,” to explore how allocators are shaping and scaling this critical segment of the impact market.

  • Tune in. Join Ina Hoxha of Climate Bonds Initiative, Veris’s Roraj Pradhananga, GIIN’s Joohee Rand, and Builders Vision’s Danielle Reed, in conversation with Tideline’s Ben Thornley and Jade Huynh, for a discussion about the potential for impact fixed-income to play an anchor role in institutional impact portfolios – and to drive additional scale in impact investing. Join the call, Tuesday Sept. 30 at 11am ET. RSVP for login details.

Dealflow: Green Infrastructure 

Generate Capital extends $100 million line of credit to Soluna to develop green data centers. Albany, NY-based Soluna builds and manages modular data centers co-located with wind turbines, solar panels and other renewable energy assets. It taps excess and waste energy production to power bitcoin mining, generative AI and other energy-intensive applications. A credit line from Generate Capital, a San Francisco-based green infrastructure investor and operator, will help Soluna expand its renewably-powered project pipeline. “Soluna’s vision for turning underutilized renewable energy into scalable computing power aligns with our belief in infrastructure that solves real-world challenges,” said Generate’s Ryan Miller. 

  • Recycled energy. An initial $12.6 million of the credit line will be used to refinance existing debt and for projects currently under construction. An additional $22.9 million will go toward data center development. The remaining $64.5 million will finance specialized equipment for AI projects. “We’re not just growing our current projects, we’re building new ones where wasted renewable energy can be converted into valuable high-performance computing,” said Soluna’s John Belizaire.
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Bioweg raises $19 million to scale plastic-free ingredients. German biotechnology startup Bioweg raised the Series A round to ramp up production of bio-alternatives to fossil fuels-derived microplastics. The round was led by Axeleo Capital’s Green Tech Industry Fund, with participation from the European Innovation Council Fund, NBank Capital, BonVenture and seed investor Frank Jenner. Bioweg uses precision fermentation to turn food-industry waste, like sugar byproducts and vegetable scraps, into ingredients that can replace microplastics used in cosmetics, paints and cleaners. Petroleum-based microplastics have been found in every corner of the earth and in human bodies. The EU’s REACH regulation is phasing out microplastics in cosmetics, detergents, medical devices and other products.

  • First-of-a-kind. Bioweg will use the funding to build its first industrial-scale facility – a capital-intensive stage of growth that has tripped up many climate tech startups (for background see, “ All Aboard Coalition mobilizes co-investments in climate tech as federal funding falters⁠”). The company has partnerships with German biotech firms and secures its waste feedstock with long-term contracts to ensure it has capacity to scale. Separately, Bangalore-based BacAlt Biosciences this week raised early stage funding to convert agricultural waste into alternatives for synthetic polymers used in textiles, cosmetics, detergents, dental care products, fertilizers and pharmaceuticals.
  • More.

Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:

  • New York-based Diana Health raised $55 million in a Series C equity round led by HealthQuest Capital to deliver maternal and women’s healthcare. (Diana Health)
  • Rodatherm Energy, a Salt Lake City-based geothermal startup that uses refrigerants instead of water to produce energy, raised $38 million from Evok Innovations, Active Impact Investments, Grantham Foundation and others. (Bloomberg)
  • New York-based Kredete snagged $22 million in Series A funding from AfricInvest Group, Partech and Polymorphic Capital to help African immigrants build credit through remittances. (Kredete)
  • Swiss impact manager Enabling Qapital made a $1.5 million investment in Premier Credit Uganda to expand access to responsible microlending in Uganda. (APEN)
  • Closed Loop Partners’ Infrastructure Group extended a $10 million loan to GreenMantra Technologies, a Canada-based molecular recycling company focused on polyethylene and polypropylene plastics. (Closed Loop)

Advisors Corner: Impact Reports

Talking to clients about impact reporting. Wealth managers’ clients are increasingly asking: Is my money doing good? In the latest Advisors’ Corner column, CapShift’s Liz Sessler argues that impact reports from funds and companies are among the most underused tools for answering that question – and for strengthening advisor-client relationships. Rather than leaving impact reports to gather digital dust, advisors can use them to spark deeper conversations about values, illustrate the tangible effects of investments, and connect impact insights to broader wealth planning (see, for example, “Six impact performance reports that go beyond the basics”). Done well, she says, reports combine data and stories, helping clients see both the numbers – like carbon reductions or increased access to capital – and the human outcomes behind them.

  • Putting reports to work. Advisors, Sessler says, can use impact reports to kickstart values conversations, shifting the frame from “What do you want to invest in?” to “What kind of change matters to your family?” Advisors can connect reporting to broader planning goals, linking impact insights to philanthropic strategies, trusts or legacy statements. And finally, she says, advisors can make reporting a standing agenda item, discussed as regularly as a portfolio review. These practices can help advisors engage the next generation and reinforce evolving values. And the utility goes both ways, Sessler says: Feedback from advisors and families will be key to ensuring the next generation of impact reporting tools are practical, actionable, and trusted.
  • Keep reading, “Talking to clients about impact reporting,” by CapShift’s Liz Sessler. Advisors’ Corner is a content partnership between ImpactAlpha and CapShift.

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

Giant Ventures adds Zenetta Burger, previously with Anthos Capital, as partner… Sierra Club appoints Loren Blackford as executive director, replacing Ben Jealous… FinDev Canada is recruiting a senior impact associate in Montreal… AXA Investment Managers is looking for a global health investing associate in New York… Impact Ventures has an opening for an operations director in Dallas… British International Investment is on the hunt for a gender and diversity finance executive in London… IDB Invest seeks a blended finance senior associate.

Corus International is hiring a managing director in Washington, DC… The Chicago Teachers’​ Pension Fund seeks under-represented and Africa-focused private equity investment managers for up to $40 million in mandates. The deadline to apply is Monday, Sept. 22… ClimateWorks Foundation’s Adaptation and Resilience Fund has issued two requests for proposals for climate solutions to extreme heat in urban areas in South and Southeast Asia and Africa.

👉 View (or post) impact investing jobs on ImpactAlpha’s Career Hub.

Thank you for your impact!

– Sept. 17, 2025