Joots

The Banyan Group is a brand built on contradictions. A luxury hospitality business that worries about its local working community as much as about its guests. A for-profit enterprise that that will sacrifice shareholder value for stakeholder benefit. In other words, a corporate outlier.

This corporate culture of challenging convention is a reflection of its founder Ho Kwon Ping, a Singaporean well-known for strong views on leadership and sustainability.

In this conversation he explains why he thinks that capitalism is broken, and CEOs alone will not be able to change the system. And why strong leaders should be willing to show weakness.

Robert Swan was among the earliest non-scientists to really experience the onset of climate change first hand. In 1986 he undertook an epic 900-mile journey to the South Pole, the longest unassisted walk ever recorded. He came back a changed man with a new purpose: to save Antarctica. Hear about his experiences, and his motivations, in this in-depth conversation.

"Frontier" markets present a promising landscape for impact investors seeking meaningful returns and societal impact. but they are also characterized by unique challenges and opportunities, The dynamism of these markets creates fertile ground for initiatives that promote inclusive growth, environmental sustainability, and social development. Successful impact investing in this environment requires collaborative models that engage local communities, governments, and private sectors. In this latest episode of Impact Investing Musings, Bradley Kopsick, Myanmar/Cambodia Country Director at Insitor, explores the dynamic potential of impact investing in frontier markets across Asia.

With a funding gap in meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, Asia faces a clear imperative to leverage and mainstream blended finance. This powerful financial tool can be applied across different structures, geographies, and sectors.

Hear from Nandini Chaudhury, Principal, Head of South and Southeast Asia, CrossBoundary Group,

In this episode of the Impact Investing Musings series, Hao Liang, Associate Professor of Finance at Singapore Management University and Co-Director of Singapore Green Finance Centre speaks about the challenges of measuring and managing impact.

Is "impact investing" the same as "ESG investing"? Or "ethical" investing? Or "stakeholder capitalism"?

In this episode we consider how social and ethical considerations have long been a part of investment, and how those ideas have matured and evolved.

Our guest is Wai Chew Chik, CEO of Heritas Capital, a Singapore-based, multi-fund impact investing platform.

When it comes to monitoring and assessing carbon emissions, the Science Based Targets initiative was widely seen as the gold standard in trusted and authoritative global institutions.

Until recently.

When the SBTI decided to amend some of its guidelines, uproar ensued, including within its own ranks.

In this episode Mikkel Larson, the CEO of Singapore's Climate Impact Exchange, talks about why he thinks the SBTI move was justified, and why carbon credits are a vital part of the decarbonisation mix.

The story of Brewdog brewery is the backdrop to our discussion about purpose and sustainability goals. As Brewdog has shown, it's all well and good to make ambitious ESG claims, but sometimes things don't quite go as planned. Travin Singh, CEO of Singapore startup brewer Less & Co, talks about how he balances his commitment to purpose with the realities of running a startup.

So Black Rock has gone weak at the knees. Again.

Its recent decision to drop its focus on ESG investing in favour of a new strategy of “transition investing” seems to be another step backwards in its commitment to the green agenda.  

The decision follows the revelation, barely six months ago, that the world’s largest investor had sharply reduced its boardroom activism, and sharply dialled back its support for environmental and social-related motions at shareholder meetings.

Which in turn followed the announcement by CEO Larry Fink that he would stop using the term ESG because, he said, it had become “too divisive”.

But while the anti-everything-green activists cheer, it’s worth remembering that progress is never linear and continuous. And good ideas rarely die, they just evolve.

Which is why it’s encouraging to see a new initiative out of Singapore that provides an interesting twist to the idea, and the goals, of shareholder activism.

The Panarchy Partners Gigaton Coalition wants to change corporate behaviour not by challenging the management and the board, but by helping them.

Taking the form of a non-profit foundation that brings together investors, companies and solutions providers, the coalition’s ambitious goal is to help companies in Asia accelerate their decarbonisation trajectories, and save a gigaton of carbon emissions along the way.

Oh, and the partnering Asia Gigaton Fund will allow investors to profit from the progress.

Panarchy Partners' founder Munib Madni explains how.

It’s probably fair to say that the finance industry has not traditionally been a hotbed of innovation.

For hundreds of years bankers and money managers have prioritised values of solidity and stability over thoughts of radicalism and experimentation.

No surprise, then, that amid the volatile and unpredictable disruption posed by climate change, the world of finance has struggled to rise to the challenge.

Thankfully that seems to be changing. The past few years has seen a rapid increase in the number of institutions and individuals joining the sustainability discourse. Some are drawn by the scent of opportunity and profit, others by a feeling of responsibility and stewardship.

Among the early movers was Munib Madni. After a successful career at Morgan Stanley Munib began to sense the tide was changing, personally and professionally. He began to immerse himself in sustainability science and theory, a process that would ultimately lead to the iteration of a new system of fund management. He called it “Panvesting”.

In this two-part conversation, Munib talks about the journey that led to the fresh perspectives and innovative systems that his new firm, Panarchy Partners, brings to the world of ESG and sustainability investing.

And in part two we address the cutting edge of this innovation – the Gigaton Coalition. It's a strategy, a platform, a call to action that brings together investors, investees and solutions providers in a bid to reduce Asia’s overall greenhouse gas emissions by one gigaton.