Sustainability has moved out of the asset management limelight over the last few years. Faced with more political pressures and conservative policy agendas in some countries, firms in the investment industry are experiencing slower flows into sustainable funds, even in Europe earlier this year. Schroders has been a leader in sustainable investment for almost 30 years, featuring dedicated sustainability career experts across asset classes, markets and countries. And today we’re speaking to Andy Howard – who heads sustainable investment globally at Schroders -- for his take on where we are, where we are going next and what Schroders is doing to continue to expand its leadership role in sustainable investment opportunities through active management and engagement.

The “Valley of Death” has become a popular term to describe a challenging period for sustainability focused startups. Bridging this “valley of death” in commercialization of sustainable technologies is a key role today's guest believes her company can play for their clients. Cindy Jia is Head of the Sustainable Solutions Group at ING Capital. Her goals for the ING team include accelerating adoption of sustainable tech and facilitating an easy transition between the different capital pools that are available. Today we're going to discuss the challenges in achieving these goals and how ING has progressed.

The US healthcare system is under siege, financial distress and rising frustration and dissatisfaction by the public to name a few challenges. My guest today is leading the way to a different approach. Rob Roy is SVP, Chief Investment Officer and Co-Head of Environmental Sustainability for AdventHealth, a non-profit healthcare system which employs 3,800 physicians and provides healthcare services to over 8 million patients through 52 hospital campuses in 9 states and 22 home health and hospice agencies. Rob, who has 36 years of institutional investment experience, oversees AdventHealth investments, which include operating capital and employee retirement portfolios totaling approximately $20 billion.

Climate Week 2025 in New York is approaching and all eyes are on the decarbonization and climate transition trend, with climate mitigation investing often taking center stage. But as the physical effects of climate change on people and the global economy continue to escalate, it’s increasingly obvious that investments in climate adaptation and resilience are also critical. And insurance, particularly the insurability of assets across different regions is rapidly becoming one of the most exciting avenues for meeting this need. Three investment experts from Schroders join us on today’s program to discuss what’s happening, including climate and crop insurance industries, insurance linked securities, and private market opportunities. Irene Lauro, an Economist at Schroders, focuses on climate issues; Christophe Etienne, is a Senior Natural Catastrophe Specialist on the Insurance Linked Securities team at Schroders Capital; and Martin E. Diaz Plata is Head of Private Equity Investments at Blue Orchard, an Impact investment manager owned by Schroders that runs the only private equity strategy in the world solely dedicated to climate insurance.

Today’s guest on the Sustainable Finance Podcast believes that we are in the early stages of a persistent, global investment mega trend driven by a massive, disruptive event - Climate Change! Dr. Julie Anderson is Program Director for the Masters of Science in Sustainability Mgmt. at American University’s Kogod School of Business. She previously held senior leadership roles at top investment firms, including serving as Director and Head of iShares US Sustainable ETFs at BlackRock, where she managed $58 billion in assets and led strategic initiatives across the business. She believes this global megatrend is an opportunity to change the way we think about and choose sustainable investments. Investors should engage with and support companies that produce products in a responsible way that also creates healthy environments. We should focus on creating companies that are more sustainable, more profitable and more competitive because they are managing their Climate risks and opportunities better.

According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG), sustainable food and plant-based innovations will grow in market share from $39B today to $290B by 2035! My guest today is a global player in helping transform the food system. Elysabeth Alfano, the CEO of VegTech, consults with public sector companies up and down the industry supply chain. Today, Alfano is talking about her role as advisor to EATV, an ETF which invests in the founders, disruptors and trend-makers with the vision and technology to create a food secure future.

My guest in today’s replay of SFP Episode 272 is Marie Clara Buellingen, Head of Sustainable Finance Americas for Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking, one of the largest foreign banking organizations in North America. She is charged with solving the challenges of making public and private capital work together to scale clean energy solutions in the required timelines. The Societe Generale sustainable finance team develops ESG strategies and programs that meet with key stakeholder expectations and best practices such as TCFD, SASB, GRI, UNPRI and the CDP. We talk about approaches to clean energy technology solutions that she has seen work across multiple sectors of the global economy.

How should energy transition investors and policymakers think about the role of technologies like green hydrogen and energy storage systems, and what policy frameworks are needed to de-risk investment in them that will accelerate the transition? This is especially true of supply chain risks when financing critical minerals projects and nature-based solutions like Voluntary Carbon Markets (VCM). Tokollo Matsabu and Patlong Advisory LLC, work with companies to globally deploy the company’s revolutionary electrolyser technology and make clean, green hydrogen economically viable in international markets. Today, SFP followers will also learn about Patlong’s Advisory role to the Lesotho Foreign Ministry on energy and sustainable finance policy initiatives.

Insurance carriers are the second largest money management group and one of the most impactful regulatory industries on earth. How is Premiums for the Planet, a membership-based collective action movement, motivating this industry to incorporate more sustainable investment strategies? Join Founder and CEO Brad Stevenson as we discuss how the collective’s companies are challenging the investment practices of their insurance carriers to support the climate adaptation efforts of the collective.

Investors today have to consider sustainability and climate resilience across all asset classes in a diversified portfolio. In this episode, we speak with two professionals from Schroders to hear how these factors are integrated in energy infrastructure and real estate. David Boyce is Head of Schroders Greencoat US, which focuses on renewable energy infrastructure. Craig Morey is the Climate Lead for the Schroders Real Estate team, which makes direct real estate investments across the UK, Europe and Asia. Both of these teams reside inside Schroders Capital, the nearly $100 billion dollar private markets unit of Schroders, which also includes Private Equity, Private Debt & Credit Alternatives. The key message for SFP followers in this episode is that climate resiliency and returns are not mutually exclusive concepts. The current shift to climate resiliency in renewable energy and infrastructure is opening up very attractive investment opportunities, and enhancing current investments.