"Globally, just 1-2% of financial assets are managed by women or people of colour"

In a climate in which the business value of DEI is increasingly undermined, this wide-ranging discussion with Bonnie Chiu, MD of The Social Investment Consultancy, sets the record straight on how the inclusivity debate should be re-connected to innovation and finding the best talent, how she is helping to shape the new SDG Standards assurance framework for private equity funds to combat SDG washing, and:

- The power of grandparents

- How to support social enterprises and funds to better understand and scale their impact

- How to tackle the shocking stat that only 1-2% of financial assets globally are managed by people of colour and/or women

- How it feels to experience DEI discrimination

- How to use your individual lived experience to catalyse systems change

- How to unlock the commercial value in NGOs and Charities to help them transition into self sustaining social enterprises to thrive and scale their impact

- Why mindsets are the key to success within founding teams

- The beauty of London life, tips for parents with young children, inspiring books and podcasts, and more!

"It doesn't matter if you have the best business idea or business plan. It comes down to mindset of people"

The Social Investment Consultancy

Social Value International SDG Impact Standards Assurance latest

UN Sustainable Development Goals

Lensational

The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

Poetry Unbound Podcast

Expats (Amazon prime)

Investing for Purpose

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"On our current path, there will be more plastics in our oceans than fish by 2050"

Lefteris comes from generations of fishermen, though by his own admission he is not a natural... However, when out on fishing boats as part of a Greek fishing school run by his start up during the financial crisis, he witnessed a fisherman hauling plastic out of the sea along with their catch - and simply throwing the bottles, cans, plastic bags, old nets and even fridges back into the ocean. That's when the idea came to him: What if someone could harness the power of fishing fleets to haul out plastics from the ocean and offer them an additional revenue stream by bringing it in bulk back to shore for recycling and reuse?

This is the incredible story of how, starting with one fisherman (his father), he and Enaleia have scaled into an operation of over 6500 vessels covering most of the mediterranean coast enabling over 1.5m tons of plastics to be recycled, including:

- How to use the tipping point theory to mobilise communities into action (including using charm and tradecraft to persuade the household decision makers!)

- Evolving social enterprise models to deliver systems change to prevent plastics entering the ocean in the first place

- How Enaleia turn over 57% of the plastics retrieved into commercial products including furniture, kayaks, clothing and trainers

- How to build a circular economy network combining the raw power of fishing communities with cutting edge blockchain to verify end-to-end traceability

- Details on the CO2 efficiencies of melting down recycled plastics to create new products vs virgin plastic processing

- How Enaleia's circularity operations in Egypt include repurposing plastics at scale into urban products including street paving

- The future potential of plastic credits

- The power of simplicity, the value of being authentic, how to gain people's trust - and so much more..!

"Clean-ups are great but we are just treating the symptom of the problem. There are 1000 rivers in the world responsible for 80% of plastics pollution in our oceans"

#Circularity #MarinePlastics #Tippingpoints #SystemsChange

Lefteris portrait picture credit + Enaleia article from The Washington Post

Enaleia

Ethereum Foundation

Ashoka

EcoAlf

Gravity Wave

Skyplast

Antipollution

Eldia

Polyeco

Creta Recycling

Investing for Purpose

Ellen Macarthur Foundation

UN SDGS

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“Why are we measuring Impact? To make sure we are maximising impact”  

Across the impact investment industry there is an ongoing evolution of impact measurement. But how often do you hear details of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that impact funds are actually using and the reasons that they were chosen? In this impact masterclass, Lara Viada of Creas, Spain’s pioneering impact investment intermediary, now in the process of raising a third fund of €70m, reveals all, including:

- The magic ingredients impact investors are looking for in founder teams

- Detailed IMM framework and KPI examples across elderly care, nutrition and education

- How the European Investment Fund (EiF) has been instrumental in scaling the impact investment sector

- The advantages of impact fund sector/vertical specialisation and why Creas transitioned to 'Empowering people, Caring for People and Regenerating the Economy'

- Using Theory of Change to identify actionable impact KPIs that inform strategic decision making

- How Creas use the EiF impact carry model to tie in the impact performance of their funds with 100% of their potential carried interest to safeguard and maximise their impact

- How funds can stand out to entrepreneurs in an increasingly competitive impact fund marketplace

- Novel approaches to getting into the impact finance sector, book recommendations, inspiration from India and more!

“If the social impact multiple of the fund is below 60%, then we don’t get any carried interest” 

Creas - Impact Fund

Creas 2024 Impact Report (EN)

Creas investees discussed:

Qida

ZenEducate

Smileat

The European Investment Fund (EIF)

EIF and Creas Impacto II Fund

A day in the life of Abed Salama, by Nathan Thrall

Investing for Purpose

Impact Europe

Social Value International

Impact Frontiers

Global Impact Investing Network

SDG Goals

#ImpactInvesting #ImpactKPIs #Marketbuilding

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“Within the next decade the financial system has to make some progressive moves to protect our way of life, because if we don’t, the economy as we’ve known it for the last 150 years is going to break.” 

With the meaning and value of Diversity Equity and Inclusion increasingly undermined, Beth Knight, Head of Social Sustainability at Lloyds Banking Group, shares her lived experience of the necessary and tangible gains made from engaging with underserved stakeholder groups across the globe, in her refreshingly personal, frank and illuminating style, including:

- Career lessons through a social/environmental lens spanning Accenture, E&Y, NGOs to co-ordinating Amazon’s global humanitarian response to the Ukraine War

- The meaning of sustainability and the joy of training cohorts as a fellow of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership

- How to successfully host a room of indigenous leaders representing 80% of the worlds biodiversity and 30 financiers possessing transformative power but limited attention spans

- Unpacking the complexities of the critical junctions where equity meets environmental impact 

- A cheat code for being a successful CSO

- Why family owned businesses and funds tend to embody exemplary legacy thinking 

- The role of finance to enable sustainable livelihoods and the impact of insurance

- How to stay well in a time of upheaval (Spoiler alert: Includes outdoor walking meetings and picking up the phone) and more!….

“The social aspects of sustainability have been mobilised around poverty to a certain extent, but where where equity meets environmental impact is critical”

Links

Lloyds Banking Group

Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL)

Task force for Socially Related Financial Disclosures 

Shining Hope for Community

The Centre for Synchronous Leadership

Mindful Exclusion Report

E&Y Four Futures

E&Y CSR in financial services

Accenture Development Partnerships

Peter Pan - JM Barrie

Tickling Sharks - John Elkington

Green Swans - John Elkington

Tony Juniper & King Charles: Climate Change Ladybird Book

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“I would like to invite impact investors to look at the region as an opportunity for revival” 

After 20 years of leading effective capacity building across social enterprises in the MENA regional through venture philanthropy, Alfanar are now launching the first regional impact investment fund for the Arab world, aimed for investing in scalable enterprises matching purpose with profit. Richard Mullane caught up with Alfanar Country Director for Lebanon Maya Rahal at the Impact Europe Bilbao conference to find out how Alfanar have managed to support so many brilliant start-ups, delivering critical social and environmental solutions, often under extreme circumstances, including:

- Stories from flourishing regional Social enterprises across edtech, circular fashion and culture

- What it takes to stay working towards positive solutions in zones devastated by conflict 

- How Alfanar select enterprises and help them transform from being reliant on philanthropy to being self-sustaining

- Lessons learned from 20 years on the ground for other global venture philanthropists 

- How Maya made the journey from being a journalist and communications expert to an Impact leader

- Why the relationships between funds and enterprises can be like a marriage, the social ingredients that make Lebanon such a special place to live, tips for staying grounded and healthy - and more!

“It’s rare for you to be in a job when you can actually see the results in people’s faces”

Alfanar Venture Philanthropy

Alfanar: Tabshoura: Digitising education across Lebanon and the region 

Alfanar: Fabricaid - Socially and environmentally conscious value chain for the apparel industry: optimizing the collection, sorting, up-cycling, and resale of secondhand clothesd 

Alfanar: Inaash - dedicated to improving the lives of women in the Palestinian refugee camps of Lebanon, while preserving the embroidery culture and tradition

The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living

The Lighthouse Podcast

BerrytechBeat Podcast

“If you are born every day with one seed in your hand, then you have to plant it”

#venturephilanthropy #socialenterprise #menaimpactfund

Investing for Purpose

Social Value International

Impact Europe

Impact Frontiers

Global Impact Investing Network

SDG Goals

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"The cost of inaction will be substantially larger than the cost of action"

The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review has become one of the most influential reports on climate change ever produced since its release by Her Majesty’s Treasury of the UK Government in October 2006. Dimitri Zenghelis, senior economist for the review, worked under Gordon Brown as Head of Economic Forecasting in HM Treasury and has since held multiple roles, fellowships and academic posts including Senior Visiting Fellow at the LSE's The Grantham Institute and Senior Advisor to the Bennett Institute (University of Cambridge). He advises governments, banks, financial institutions, NGOs, and other international organisations on sustainability, climate change, innovation, economic modelling and clean urbanisation. Get comfortable for a macro-economic and financial markets double espresso covering topics including:

- Shenanigans that went on at the heart of government between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown

- The impact of the Stern Review’s focus on an economic case for climate action on the acceleration of the transition

- Optimising your investment strategy across the transition 

- Who is Wan Gang? And why did he have a greater influence on the development of electric vehicles than Elon Musk.

- The reinforcing feedback between reduction in cost of technologies and favourable politics

- The difference between conditional and complacent optimism, the future of aviation, the joy of reading children's books - and a great deal more!

#cleantech #sustainabletransition #macroeconomics #innovation #cleanurbanisation

"It's about forward looking strategy, not backwards looking disclosures"

Links

The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review

The Bennett Institute for Public Policy at the University of Cambridge

Grantham Research Institute for Climate Change and the Environment

Independent Economics

Investing for Purpose

Social Value International

Impact Frontiers

Global Impact Investing Network

SDG Goals

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"I would encourage philanthropists to ask the question, ‘How is your philanthropy unlocking capital?’”

Over the last 10 years, 1billion people have gained access to energy for the first time from solar lighting and home systems. 30% of those people were provided energy by companies that Acumen invested in. 

Working across climate resilient agriculture, off grid energy access, workforce development, education, minority founded companies, healthcare access, financial inclusion and entrepreneurial solutions for forcibly displaced people, all while applying a gender lens across each investment strategy, Acumen are impact market leaders in solving problems of poverty at scale across the globe. 

Buckle up for a social investment masterclass with Yasmina Zaidman, Chief Development and Partnerships Officer on scaling impact at the nexus of poverty and climate change, including:

- How to catalyse businesses to create markets where markets have failed

- De-risking agriculture in emerging markets with blended patient capital before scaling up with private markets

- How Acumen academy train 200+ fellows each year in how to build businesses and transformational leadership

- Designing due diligence impact strategy to add value to investees regardless of whether investment is achieved

- How Acumen developed a new model for impact measurement, lean data, which has become social impact measurement specialists 60 Decibels 

- Working with development finance institutions to scale a stable prosperous society that tackles climate change

- How a trip on a bus in Venezuela involving a 4 ft iguana and a shoeless child led Yasmina to a career in impact…. and more!

#energyaccess #unlockingcapital #socialimpact #genderlensinvesting

“We need to stop treating issues like poverty and inequality and inclusion and diversity as a ‘nice to have’. They are fundamentally important to the ability of our society”

Links

Acumen

2X Challenge

60 Decibels

The Little Prince

The Leadership Pipeline

S4S Technologies

Investing for Purpose

Social Value International

Impact Frontiers

Global Impact Investing Network

SDG Goals

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“If you’re not generating a healthy return and an impact, then people should not back you”

ETF (Environmental Technologies Fund) Partners are one of the original pioneers in sustainable investing, with nearly $1bn raised across 4 funds since 2006. Currently with 31 portfolio companies across the energy transition, future mobility, green connectivity, the responsible consumer and sustainable food, they are leading the charge for impact investing at scale.

In this pod, Robert Geneiser, Managing Partner, brings his insight and infectious enthusiasm to a revealing 30 minute chat covering: 

- Why Greece is a particularly entrepreneurial place and increasingly attractive to investors

- How ETF invested in two Greek startups which are now both at Series B and beyond

- The rise of the sustainable consumer

- The importance of young companies demonstrating market pull-through for solutions 

- Why insurance is important for adaptation technologies

- The personal qualities in founders that ETF look for beyond business models

- How a focus on digital solutions helps ETF to aggregate impact at speed and scale

Plus required reading, life balance recommendations and more!

“We all have to look our children in the eye and say we’ve done something worthwhile”

ETF Partners

ETF Sustainability Talks Podcast

ETF Podcast with Jeffrey Nachmanoff

Deepsea

Hellasdirect

Phenix

Fireweather by John Vaillant

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck 

Investing for Purpose

Social Value International

https://impactfrontiers.org/

Global Impact Investing Network

https://sdgs.un.org/goals

#Deepsea #Hellasdirect #Phenix #energytransition #futuremobility #greenconnectivity #responsibleconsumer #sustainablefood

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"We should no longer move fast and break things, but rather create systems change through collaboration and kindness."

- Collaboration as the key to systems change

- How do you build an impact ecosystem?

- Can you match a financial instrument to a personality type?

- Why you shouldn't take yourself too seriously

- Why kindness should not be underrated

- The do's and dont's of co-founder dating

- How to avoid VC ar*eholes ..... and more!

Buckle up for an inspiring Impact masterclass with Yonca Braeckman, founder of Impact Shakers, hosted by Richard Mullane.

Impact Shakers

#inclusiveentrepreneurship #collaboration #systemschange

Vyldness

Vested Impact

Faircado

Investing for Purpose

Social Value International

https://impactfrontiers.org/

Global Impact Investing Network

https://sdgs.un.org/goals

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"There are many committed businesses out there with a lot of power - that movement creates a place where the others cannot hide"

Business for Societal Impact (B4SI) is a global membership network uniting close to 200 mid to high cap corporations in managing & measuring their shared value & intentional approach to positive social impact, with up to $3bn held in community investments. So how do you transition corporates into engagement with positive social impact without enabling Socialwashing?

Join Global Director Clodagh Connolly and Richard Mullane for this wide-ranging 20 minute chat, including:

- Why companies that articulate and measure their societal impact are primed to win the war for talent

- The problem of ESG investment as a due diligence construct versus Impact investment as intentional and forward looking

- How B4Si ensure transparency while mitigating greenwashing risks 

- Why corporates can no longer hide from social and environmental responsibilities

- The implications of CSRD role out and where the costs will end up

- Why double materiality is good for businesses

- Why the right Social Enterprises and community organisations are perfectly placed to work alongside corporates like Nokia to help them transition

- How to successfully engage with corporates to stand the best chance of channelling investment

#Community investment #Social innovation #Social procurement #CSRD #corporatetransition

"In the future the war for talent is going to be extraordinary across businesses"

Business for Sustainable Impact (B4Si)

B4Si September 2024 events: Bonn, London & New York

Dow Jones Sustainability Index

Iberdrola: Promoting women's STEM

Nokia: Bridging the Digital Divide

Investing for Purpose

https://sdgs.un.org/goals

Social Value International

Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN)

Impact Frontiers

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.