This Week in Impact
Impact Alpha
Your weekly roundup of the news and features from this week in ImpactAlpha
Episodes
Mentioned books
Apr 25, 2024 • 29min
Family offices target climate transition, foundations invest in AI for good, and a voluntary carbon credit brou-ha-ha
Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week:
Family offices have the opportunity to invest in the climate transition:
https://impactalpha.com/the-climate-transition-and-investment-opportunities-for-family-offices/
Three leading foundations make for-profit investments in an OpenAI competitor:
https://impactalpha.com/with-stakes-in-anthropic-impact-investors-seek-a-seat-at-the-ai-table/
The brou-ha-ha over whether voluntary carbon credits should count towards a company’s climate targets:
https://impactalpha.com/with-stakes-in-anthropic-impact-investors-seek-a-seat-at-the-ai-table/
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Apr 19, 2024 • 23min
Good economic news, the legacy of Participant Media, and a dispatch from the World Bank
Brian Walsh and ImpactAlpha editor David Bank take up the good news on the good economy, Participant Media’s lasting legacy and the signs of change at the World Bank. Plus: an exclusive early listen to the electrifying single, “I’m Your Heat Pump.”
To learn more about heat pumps and home electrification, visit The Switch is On and Rewiring America websites. Sign up for The Switch is On monthly newsletter and receive an email featuring the “(I’m Your) Heat Pump” music video.
Rob's column:
https://impactalpha.com/good-economy-actually-is-good-news-as-impact-investors-adjust-to-new-realities/
Participant Media
https://impactalpha.com/shutdown-of-participant-media-challenges-other-investors-to-drive-impact-through-film/
World Bank:
https://impactalpha.com/spring-meetings-yield-green-shoots-of-development-finance-reform-at-the-world-bank/
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Apr 11, 2024 • 25min
Reconnecting communities, impact investing in Puerto Rico, and how business owners are exiting to employees
Brian and David explore the federal funds that are catalyzing capital to reconnect communities from the legacy of racial segregation, the huge impact investing opportunity in Puerto Rico, and the mechanisms that investors and business owners are using to exit to employees.
Links to this week's stories:
Reconnecting communities - https://impactalpha.com/with-bridges-buses-and-bike-lanes-reconnecting-communities-rebuilds-civic-muscles-along-with-neighborhoods/
Impact in PR - https://impactalpha.com/the-impact-investing-opportunity-in-puerto-ricos-economic-comeback/
Employee ownership exits - https://impactalpha.com/with-elbos-and-eots-more-business-owners-are-exiting-to-employee-ownership/
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This episode featured music by Isaac Silk and by Yurii Semchyshyn.
Apr 4, 2024 • 21min
EPA (finally) announces who will distribute $20 billion fund, lessons from blended finance, and universal owners vote their proxy
Brian and David continue to unpack the EPA’s blockbuster $20 billion in government grants to mobilize commercial investment in climate solutions, learn lessons from dozens of blended finance transactions, and discuss how shareholders are voting to have companies mitigate economy-wide risks.
Links to this week's stories:
https://impactalpha.com/investors-ready-products-to-amplify-us-green-bank-funding/
https://impactalpha.com/blending-billions-lessons-from-more-than-three-dozen-big-blended-finance-transactions/
https://impactalpha.com/with-systems-first-proposals-shareholders-seek-to-mitigate-economy-wide-risks/
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Mar 28, 2024 • 20min
National green bank funding, basket bonds, and Brazil's burgeoning impact ecosystem
Brian Walsh and David Bank discuss the players likely to receive massive funding from the EPA to create a national green bank, how people are investing in Brazil’s impact economy, and how a $75 million ‘basket bond’ is catalyzing climate lending to small businesses in emerging markets.
Read more:
Green bank: https://impactalpha.com/epas-new-partners-plot-a-27-billion-path-to-a-us-green-bank/
Basket bonds: https://impactalpha.com/how-a-75-million-basket-bond-is-catalyzing-climate-lending-to-small-businesses-in-emerging-markets/
Brazilian impact ecosystem: https://impactalpha.com/the-path-to-growth-in-brazil-runs-through-the-impact-economy-videos
Sign up for ImpactAlpha LatAm: https://impactalpha.com/latam-newsletter-email/
Mar 21, 2024 • 28min
How Texas’s anti ESG campaign is costing it money, cookstoves and carbon markets, and Vanguard gets punked
David Bank joins Brian Walsh to discuss some of the top stories from ImpactAlpha this week.
Stories mentioned on the podcast:
Texas boots Blackrock:
https://impactalpha.com/texas-boots-blackrock-saddling-texans-with-the-costs-of-its-campaign-against-esg/
Clean cooking: https://impactalpha.com/leveraging-the-carbon-markets-for-clean-cooking-climate-justice-and-social-impact/
Vanguard gets punked: https://impactalpha.com/elaborate-spoof-takes-aim-at-vanguards-retreat-from-climate-commitments/
Agents of Impact Call 60: https://impactalpha.com/calls/
Dec 15, 2023 • 10min
Finding hidden impact and overlooked risks in municipal bonds
Featuring Activest's Homero Radway, HIP Investor’s Paul Herman, Kestrel’s Monica Reid, Matt Posner of Court Street Group and Lincoln Institute’s RJ McGrail.
Check out the call recap: https://impactalpha.com/the-arbitrage-opportunity-in-high-impact-municipal-bonds-video/
Or watch the replay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQPh3XC9X1g
Imogen's latest Institutional Shift column: https://impactalpha.com/dont-take-jeffrey-ubbens-shutdown-of-inclusive-capital-for-more-than-hes-worth/
Dec 8, 2023 • 22min
A tale of two COPs with Marilyn Waite and Dawn Lippert
Amy Cortese speaks with both Marilyn Waite of the Climate Finance Fund and Dawn Lippert of Elemental Excelerator about their experiences this week in the green and blue zones of COP28. Plus, Monique Aiken has the headlines.
Dec 1, 2023 • 20min
All eyes on Dubai as COP 28 begins with Stephan Nicoleau
ImpactAlpha’s Amy Cortese speaks with Full Cycle’s Stephan Nicoleau at the start of COP 28 to hear what he’s expecting - and hoping for - at the global climate summit in Dubai. Plus, host Brian Walsh has the headlines.
Nov 17, 2023 • 21min
Steering pension funds toward impact with Tara Mei Smith and Marcela Pinilla
Friends of ImpactAlpha Eric Horvath and Lucas Turner-Owens share an excerpt from their new podcast Impact(ed). They speak with Tara Mei Smith (Office of NYC Comptroller) and Marcela Pinilla (Zevin Asset Management) about creating change from the inside at pension funds, and their journey as women of color investment professionals. Plus, host Monique Aiken has the headlines.
