Chris Ito of FFI Solutions and Georges Dyer of Intentional Endowments Network go “beyond carbon” to discuss topics relating to climate change, net zero, DEIJ (diversity, equity, inclusion & justice), ESG and the benefits and challenges of sustainable investing.
Episodes
Wednesday Apr 10, 2024
Jeff Gitterman: Pragmatism over Polarization in Long-Term Investing
Wednesday Apr 10, 2024
Wednesday Apr 10, 2024
Jeff Gitterman: Pragmatism over Polarization in Long-Term Investing
Sustainable investing veteran, Jeff Gitterman, joins hosts Chris and Georges to discuss bridging divides in ESG investing and climate change debates. Gitterman advocates pragmatism - finding common ground between proponents and skeptics. Key highlights include investment opportunities in climate solutions like infrastructure, recognizing physical risks as warning signs, and widening the sustainable investing tent to diverse viewpoints. While addressing challenges, Gitterman underscores the necessity of open dialogue, consensus-building, and reframing ESG around stakeholder capitalism over political divisions. Listeners gain insights into navigating complexities, advancing sustainable investing through understanding, and meeting investors where they are.
Guest
Jeff Gitterman - CEO, Gitterman Asset Management
Background
Jeff Gitterman is a pioneering leader in sustainable investing. With over 30 years of experience as a financial advisor, he is the Co-Founder of Gitterman Wealth Management where he created the SMART Investing Solutions for climate-aware portfolio allocation. He launched Gitterman Asset Management in 2020, focusing on ESG strategies and thought leadership for financial and institutional markets. Jeff co-hosts TheIMPACT TV, contributes to major media, and champions the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. Beyond investing, Jeff serves on the board of the Child Health Institute of New Jersey and supports autism awareness.
Conversation
Highlights the importance of finding common ground between proponents and skeptics of ESG investing and reframing the ESG/sustainable investing debate around stakeholder capitalism vs shareholder primacy, rather than getting mired in political divisions over "values."
Explains the critical role and significant opportunities in the climate solution space around infrastructure investment. Physical risks associated with climate change act as a catalyst for investors to recognize and act on these opportunities.
Advocates the need for more clarity and consistency in messaging and labeling around ESG investing to reduce confusion, especially from regulators like the SEC.
Urges pragmatism in the face of climate challenges – recognizing the complexities and divisions in society, investors need to meet people and other investors where they are and be open to listening to differing viewpoints.
Wednesday Mar 27, 2024
Wednesday Mar 27, 2024
Presidio Student Insights: A Winning Pitch from the Next Generation of Sustainable Investors
In this episode, hosts Chris Ito and Georges Dyer engage in a captivating conversation with a trio of students from Presidio Graduate School, who were members of the team that emerged victorious in the IEN's 2023 Student Corporate Engagement Challenge in the Graduate category. The challenge encourages students to pitch an investment in a publicly traded company, coupled with a shareholder engagement strategy. The conversation focuses on their investment pitch for First Solar and its groundbreaking thin-film cadmium telluride technology, offering a more sustainable alternative to traditional solar panels.
Guests
The winning team members from Presidio Graduate School include Callie Greene, Stephanie Motta, Claire Nevels, Kate Vachon, and Lauren Novak.
In this episode, Georges and Chris talk with Callie Green, Steph Motta and Claire Nevels
Highlights
Explores the rationale behind an investment in First Solar
Underscores the importance of engaging on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), especially in leadership, as an area where companies can improve and unlock economic value.
Illustrates the pivotal role of educational institutions in empowering students to advocate for systemic changes towards a more sustainable and just world.
Showcases the proactive steps being taken by the next generation in aligning investment strategies with the urgent need for environmental and social justice.
Tuesday Dec 05, 2023
Ian Fuller: Unlocking Diversity for Alpha and Impact Investing
Tuesday Dec 05, 2023
Tuesday Dec 05, 2023
Ian Fuller: Unlocking Diversity for Alpha and Impact Investing
This episode features Ian Fuller, CEO and Co-Founder of Westfuller Advisors, a minority and women-owned investment advisory firm and Outsourced CIO dedicated to impact investing. Georges and Chris talk with Ian about his personal journey from New York’s Lower East Side to Wall Street as context for Westfuller's mission to drive change through ethical investments, and challenging traditional notions of money's role in building a sustainable future.
Guest
Ian Fuller - CEO and Co-Founder, Westfuller Advisors
Background
Ian Fuller is CEO and Co-Founder of Westfuller, a Black-majority, woman- and LGBTQ-owned investment advisory firm. As specialist in evidence-driven, global wealth advisory and planning, strategic investment management, and philanthropic giving, Ian works closely with people and institutions to empower wealth with purpose. He is a believer in the promise of money and financial systems to drive a flourishing democracy and economy. Ian co-leads the firm’s commitment to support efforts building: a just and equitable society, public purpose finance for All, and community infrastructure and assets.
Conversation
Sheds light on how to define impact investing and how it is fundamentally different from ESG integration or responsible investing.
Addresses the nuances and differences between net zero and a just transition, and the challenges around implementing an investment strategy that prioritizes both concepts.
Discusses the challenges of being a minority-owned investment firm and how asset allocators investing in diverse managers are generating returns.
Wednesday Aug 16, 2023
Dr. Michael Greenstone: Decoding the social cost of carbon and the carbon offset market
Wednesday Aug 16, 2023
Wednesday Aug 16, 2023
Dr. Michael Greenstone: Decoding the social cost of carbon and the carbon offset market
In this episode, Chris and Georges do a deep dive into the economic implications of carbon emissions with one of the world’s leading climate finance experts, Dr. Michael Greenstone. As a former chief economist for President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, Dr. Greenstone played a pivotal role in developing the "social cost of carbon." The trio discusses the significance of understanding the economic cost of carbon emissions and the tools policymakers have at their disposal to combat climate change.
Guest
Dr. Michael Greenstone, Milton Friedman Distinguished Service Professor in Economics
Background
Michael Greenstone is the Milton Friedman Distinguished Service Professor in Economics as well as the Director of the Becker Friedman Institute and the interdisciplinary Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. As a co-director of the Climate Impact Lab, he is producing empirically grounded estimates of the local and global impacts of climate change. He is also the co-director of the King Climate Action Initiative at the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, and co-founder of Climate Vault, a 501(c)(3) that uses markets to allow institutions and people to reduce their carbon footprint.
Conversation
Sheds light on the concept of the social cost of carbon, its current applications, and the overarching importance of carbon pricing in shaping future climate policies, especially in the United States.
Touches upon the controversial topic of carbon offsets, distinguishing between the voluntary offset market and regulated cap and trade permitting systems.
Introduces Climate Vault, a non-profit startup co-founded by Dr. Greenstone that not only allows entities to offset emissions using regulated permits but also aids in purchasing carbon removal, thereby supporting emerging carbon removal companies to scale their technologies.
Tuesday Aug 01, 2023
Elysabeth Alfano: Reaching Net Zero through Plant-based Innovation
Tuesday Aug 01, 2023
Tuesday Aug 01, 2023
Elysabeth Alfano: Reaching Net Zero through Plant-based Innovation
In this episode, Georges and Chris delve into the world of plant-based foods and explore the potential of this burgeoning industry with Elysabeth Alfano, a renowned expert at investing in companies that innovate with plants to produce animal-free products for sustainable consumption. Elysabeth discusses the health, environmental, and ethical implications of this dietary shift and shares her insights on the role of plant-based foods in mitigating climate change.
Guest
Elysabeth Alfano, Co-Founder and CEO of VegTech™ Invest
Background
Elysabeth Alfano is the CEO of VegTech™ Invest, the advisor to the Plant-based Innovation & Climate ETF (EATV). As one of the foremost experts in the industry, Elysabeth speaks on the latest plant-based business and investment developments. She also speaks on issues of a shifting global food supply system and what it represents for sustainability, climate change, food insecurity, human health, animal welfare and a growing global population.
Wednesday Jun 28, 2023
Tom Soto: Diversity in Asset Management Meets Carbon Negative Investing
Wednesday Jun 28, 2023
Wednesday Jun 28, 2023
Tom Soto: Diversity in Asset Management Meets Carbon Negative Investing
Georges and Chris talk with impact investor Tom Soto on his trajectory from civil rights activist to a leader in environmental technology and renewable energy, including his new fund strategy that enhances biomass plants using forest standing deadwood to create 24-hour dispatchable power that is fully renewable and net carbon negative.
Guest
Tom Soto, Founder and Managing Partner, Latimer Partners, LLC
Background
Tom Soto is a long-time impact investor, entrepreneur and civil rights leader working at the intersection of politics, activism and finance. Tom has founded four private equity investment funds with a focus on clean technology, AI, Fintech and infrastructure. He now manages his family investment office, Latimer Partners, LLC. As a gay, Latino fund manager, Tom has been a pioneering voice for diversity in fund management and technology movement.
Conversation
The son two of California’s most well-respected Latino Civil Rights leaders, Tom credits his father Assemblyman Phil Soto, his mother Nell Soto, and the culture of community service and improvement that propelled him to the intersection of politics, activism, environmentalism and the investment world.
D4IR (Diversity in the Fourth Industrial Revolution) takes technology and traditional hardware, combines it with software within the energy transition world and puts it into one format.
To avoid 1.5 degrees Celsius, we have to find opportunities that go net carbon negative on a mass scale.
Monetizing carbon and biochar to fuel fully renewable biomass facilities that feed peak and base loads will keep the economy running when the sun is not shining and the wind is not blowing.
Tuesday Jun 06, 2023
Tuesday Jun 06, 2023
Spotlight on Methane: Satellite Technology and Emissions Detection with Mark Kriss
Georges and Chris sit down with Geofinancial Analytics CEO Mark Kriss and take a birds eye view on detecting methane emissions from space, mapping those emissions to oil and gas asset owners and driving methane management accountability and reporting transparency.
Guest
Mark Kriss, CEO, Geofinancial Analytics
Background
Mark Kriss is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Geofinancial Analytics, a science-driven data provider whose civic mission is to accelerate the clean energy transition by informing decisions and business practices with transparent, objective facts using advanced geospatial technology. He is also the Co-Founder and Partner of Macroclimate, an impact investment firm which served as an incubator for Geofinancial Analytics. Kriss is a serial tech entrepreneur, impact investor, and thought leader on sustainability data and climate risk metrics. He first became intrigued by portfolio management in 1998.
Conversation
Mark’s career arc brings together the topics of climate science, technology and capital markets.
Methane is by far the most potent GHG, and stopping methane leakage from oil & gas production is a relatively easy fix.
Satellite technology enables a more accurate measurement than current practice and can help to identify and remediate the source of the leaks.
Learn about MethaneScan® 100 Screening & Research: https://www.ffisolutions.com/methanescan-100/
For more information on Geofinancial Analytics: https://www.geofinancial.com
Tuesday Apr 04, 2023
Jenna Nicholas: Climate Finance, Green 401(k)s & Community Empowerment
Tuesday Apr 04, 2023
Tuesday Apr 04, 2023
Georges and Chris have a wide-ranging discussion with impact investment trailblazer Jenna Nicholas, who takes us on her career journey through climate activism, community-informed impact investing and climate finance in 401(k) retirement plans.
Guest
Jenna Nicholas, CEO Impact Experience
Background
Jenna is a private equity investor and the CEO of Impact Experience, an organization that builds bridges and deep relationships between impact investors, foundations, corporates, entrepreneurs, artists and local leaders to co-create solutions for marginalized communities.
Jenna previously worked with Divest-Invest Philanthropy and has taken the lessons from that experience and applied them to help drive change around environmental and social issues from the bottom up.
Conversation
We go deep on her work at Impact Experience, and she shares stories about the hands-on efforts in communities like Montgomery, AL, and southern West Virginia to bring together businesses, capital and communities to catalyze impact.
Jenna discusses her latest project, the Business Climate Finance Initiative which seeks to raise awareness and decarbonize the assets in 401(k) plans and corporate deposits.
Finally, we delve into the politicization of ESG and break down the recent U.S. Department of Labor ruling on ESG that has been the subject of considerable debate.
For more information regarding the activities of Impact Experience: https://www.impact-experience.com
Beyond Carbon
Risks created by climate change are complex and multi-faceted. The intersection of science, policy, changing societal norms, notions of equity and politics makes projecting and then solving the climate crisis challenging.
This podcast unpacks climate change and climate justice through the lens of finance and investing, helping to inform institutions and everyday savers on what it means to adopt sustainable policies. Best practices are evolving and there is no one size-fits-all approach to determining the best path.
Our hosts, Georges Dyer and Chris Ito will hold discussions with thought leaders from a range of disciplines that will help investors form their own opinions on how to allocate capital in a more sustainable fashion.