ImpactAlpha Podcasts

“Global thematic impact didn’t exist, so we decided to build it ourselves," says Erika Karp in the latest ROI. Cornerstone’s Access Impact Fund is a Nasdaq-listed mutual fund that for a minimum $1,000 investment offers access to sub-advisors looking for thematic investments in small-, medium- and large-cap companies across geographies. Karp, formerly the head of global sector research at UBS Investment Bank, is taking a stand on hotly debated investment topics that go beyond impact investing. She says active management, which has fallen out of favor because of high fees and uneven performance, is key to intentional impact.

The popular protests that drove the GSG Impact Summit out of Santiago, Chile, added “a poignant urgency” to the first day of the global gathering of impact investors in Buenos Aires, Sir Ronald Cohen said in a podcast interview with ImpactAlpha’s David Bank.

Dave Chen of Equilibrium Capital returns for another edition of Institutional Shift.

Now that big private equity players are spinning up impact funds left and right, the impact of the rest of their investments is getting a lot more scrutiny as well. ImpactAlpha’s roundtable regulars recorded a podcast episode keying on Blackstone’s investments in Brazilian agricultural processing plants linked to deforestation in the Amazon. But other private equity giants have stepped up with their own deals of questionable impact. As a source for stories, keeping watch on private equity impact is the gift that keeps on giving.

In a counter-intuitive shift, the estimated four million global youth climate strikers who took to the streets last week may be more pro-business than recalcitrant heads of state gathering at the United Nations intent on slow-walking climate action. The U.S., Brazil and Japan, for example, have not even asked to speak at today’s Climate Action Summit, where 60 or so countries are expected to present more ambitious carbon-reduction plans. By catalyzing a powerful political constituency for urgent climate action, protestors may accelerate the low-carbon transition and soften climate shock. By most expert analysis, keep global temperature rise with 1.5 or even 2 degrees Celsius produces better returns for almost all in

Updated Corporate Purpose Signals Broader Definitions of Fiduciary Duty and Materiality by ImpactAlpha

Overcoming Systemic Bias in Investing Means Challenging Power and Pattern Matching by ImpactAlpha

The latest Returns on Investment podcast takes on the challenge of how investors can help make sure workers get a better shake. In a low-unemployment economy, it’s not only jobs, but quality jobs that are needed to drive broader prosperity that is inclusive of workers of all ages and skills.

The roundtable regulars aim to trace the connections between the impact investing project writ large and the current political climate, without violating our pledge against armchair analysis of electability, swing-state appeal or fundraising prowess.

On the latest episode of our special Institutional Shift series of conversations, Dave Chen and David Bank review their predictions from six months ago and look ahead to 2020. On the docket: climate-change investing, plastics, market segmentation, and product development.