No matter who wins this election, protecting democracy is every business leader’s responsibility
At a dinner hosted by the Aspen Institute Business & Society Program I attended recently, business leaders across the political spectrum had full …
Tagged with: Capitalism Reimagined
Consumers, groceries, price-gouging and stakeholder capitalism
Over the past week, there has been a lot of discussion of policies designed to address price gouging. Some say these are a …
How impact investments in Anthropic can strengthen responsible innovation in tech
In the realm of AI discourse, much attention is directed towards fostering responsible development of the technology itself (e.g. Is it free from …
Speakers at MO Summit 2024 in Austin
Impact CEOs are navigating macro uncertainty with purpose
Purpose, it turns out, is durable. CEOs of Seventh Generation, Vital Farms and other purpose-driven companies who gathered at Big Path Capital’s annual …
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 …
Economist Milton Friedman on a postage stamp
Fiduciaries have a duty of care to their investors and to the world
Quoting his own book, economist Milton Friedman wrote in the New York Times Magazine in 1970, “There is one and only one social …
Seven pathways for transcending ‘wealth supremacy’
Editor’s note: This is the second essay adapted from Marjorie Kelly’s new book, Wealth Supremacy. In her previous essay on ImpactAlpha, adapted from …
Challenging wealth supremacy to realize the dream of systemic change
This essay is adapted from Marjorie Kelly’s forthcoming book, “Wealth Supremacy: How the Extractive Economy and the Biased Rules of Capitalism Drive Today’s …
EverFi, Vital Farms and hundreds of exits provide fresh evidence of ‘impact alpha’
ImpactAlpha, May 9 – When educational services provider EverFi was acquired by Blackbaud last year for $750 million, TPG Rise roughly doubled its …
Impact investors lay out a theory of change for driving positive outcomes in public equities
ImpactAlpha, Mar. 30 – It’s long been something of a truism among impact investors that it’s not possible to demonstrate true impact with investments …
Want to wring impact from ESG? Look to governance
If ESG is a foot in the door to an economy built around sustainability, inclusion and equity, then governance is the power that’s …
Pulled from "Scaling Impact" cover
Six financial paradigm shifts needed to scale impact
Over my 20-plus years as a professional working on economic development, development finance, and impact investing, as both an investor and an advisor, …
ImpactAlpha Deal Spotlight: Black-worker ownership
ImpactAlpha, January 27 — With more than half of business owners in the U.S. over 55 years old, there’s a “silver tsunami” of …
photo: World Economic Forum
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 …
Source: Amplify ESG
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 …
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 …
photo credit: Jim Hill/CPR News
Blake Jones, Kachuwa Impact Fund: Making co-ops work for investors, too.
Blake Jones is “a cooperative geek.” After co-founding four co-op enterprises, including Namaste Solar and Clean Energy Credit Union, he has brought the …
Development finance institutions face calls for reform in the face of cascading climate and energy crises
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 21 – Embattled World Bank chief David Malpass made an about-face last week, copping to manmade global warming and the need …
Tanking one holding to boost returns and reduce risks across your portfolio
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 20 – Few big institutional investors would deliberately encourage their portfolio companies to make moves that hit their valuations. The Shareholder Commons, …
photo: SOCAP
Sorenson takes over SOCAP to restructure its finances and produce its flagship event
ImpactAlpha, June 21 – SOCAP, one of the earliest and biggest impact investing events, is under new management. A cash crunch caused by …
Can investors respond to the systemic risks gun violence poses to the American economy?
ImpactAlpha, May 31 – Investors may not be primarily responsible for finding ways to reduce the risk of mass shootings. That would be our …
Engine No. 1 opts for accommodation over confrontation with Big Oil and big banks
ImpactAlpha, May 26 – A year ago, the tiny fund manager Engine No. 1 was The Little Engine That Could. This year, it’s …
Risk off? Savvy investors go ‘impact on’ to stay on track in a volatile market
ImpactAlpha, May 25 – Markets have gone risk off. Savvy investors who have gone impact on are weathering the economic downturn. Speculators in crypto, …
photo: World Economic Forum
At elite World Economic Forum, Davos Man and Davos Woman will talk sustainability, inclusion and action
ImpactAlpha, May 23 – It’s back. As the world’s corporate and government movers and shakers gather at Davos after a two-year pandemic pause, …
Former vice president Mike Pence | Photo credit: Gino Santa Maria
ESG opponents get political under the guise of getting politics out of investing
ImpactAlpha, May 12 – The war in Ukraine and high gas prices gave oil and gas interests an opening to push back against efforts …
(left to right) Eugene Cornelius (Milken Institute), Kweilin Ellingrud (McKinsey) and Kimberley Reid (Future Fund Management Agency) at Milken Global Conference 2022 | Photo credit: Milken Institute
Overheard at the Milken Global Conference: Mission and margins
How to understand and harness the recent influx of capital into ESG products was the conversation at the center of this week’s 25th …
Reports of the death of responsible investment are greatly exaggerated
Face it: responsible investment is about political choices. Short of this reckoning, the fate of ESG might be the least of our concerns. …
An open-pit mine in Para, Brazil | Photo credit: T photography
Where we are and where we’re going in the transition to system-level investing
When we started The Investment Integration Project (TIIP) back in 2015 we did so with a relatively straightforward idea: we wanted to show …
Photo by Robert Ramirez on Unsplash
On ESG disclosure, companies should listen to the opinion of the American public
The risk that climate change poses to business operations and investment portfolios and companies’ role in contributing to global temperature increases are now …
photo: Third Way Think Tank
SEC disclosure rules signal the arrival of climate accountability
ImpactAlpha, March 22 – Better than expected. That was the consensus among advocates for greater transparency for corporate climate-related risks and impacts after …
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
How the SEC’s rules will – and won’t – solve climate change
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed landmark climate-related disclosure requirements for public companies to inform investors about the risks a changing …
Moving from ESG talk to action at major corporations
ImpactAlpha, Mar. 11 – It’s one thing for a corporation to set environmental or social goals. It’s another to shift executives, employees and supply …
Incentivizing corporate executives and suppliers to move the needle on climate and diversity
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 7 – From tech giants to global retailers, corporations are rewarding executives and suppliers for delivering on environmental, social and governance, or …
Inside the generational opportunity to reshape rules of corporate disclosure
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 25 – Bottom-up policies for access to capital in divested communities. Top-down strategies to reshape capitalism to work for all stakeholders. “We …
Capitol Building in Washington DC.
Progress on a dozen policies to mobilize private capital for public good
There is no shortage of challenges facing leaders in Washington. The coming midterm elections will increasingly dominate the headlines. But impact investors must …
Climate is a crypto play as action moves from TradFi to DeFi to ReFi
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 27 – If blockchain was a solution in search of a problem, it may have found it in climate change. The …
Illustration by Shutterstock.
The advanced techniques investors are using to address income inequality
ImpactAlpha, January 26 — Today’s extreme levels of income inequality affect investments across all asset classes and economic and social stability more broadly. …
New York City, New York | Image credit: Steve Sanchez
‘Deeply scary’: Agents of Impact react to Larry Fink’s letter
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 20 – BlackRock chief Larry Fink’s latest letter to CEOs elicited “a collective yawn,” we wrote earlier this week. “Fink’s annual letters …
BlackRock's Larry Fink | Image: Mike Bloomberg/Flickr
The arc of Larry Fink’s annual letters trace the mainstreaming of sustainable investing
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 18 – You know impact investing has gone mainstream when Larry Fink’s annual letter to CEOs elicits a collective yawn. “This is …
On anniversary of Capitol attack, stakeholders hold corporations accountable for democracy
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 6 – Add political stability to the list of systemic risks that keep investors up at night. ‘Political risk’ has historically …
Photo credit: Manop Boonpeng
Capitalism Reimagined in 2022: Building a multi-movement engine to shift practices, policy and power
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 23 – That our economic system and social contract is due for a reset is by now conventional wisdom. Still left to …
Eight ways investors are going beyond ESG risk-mitigation to drive real-world impact
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 14 – The recent takedown of MSCI by a team of Bloomberg Businessweek reporters was the latest knock on environmental, social …
Impact brain trust delivers proposals for mobilizing capital for a just transition
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 13 – Mandatory impact accounting. Harmonized sustainability standards. And broadened powers for multilateral development banks and development finance institutions to absorb …
Three ways climate-committed shareholders can flex their power in 2022
While too many global investment firms filled the halls of Glasgow with more hot air, leading early-movers in shareholder action were finding new …
Building a multi-movement engine to hold corporations accountable and reimagine capitalism
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 3 – The New Capitalism Project has over the past two years dissected the failings of the current system and crafted a …