Sustainability Trends and Opportunities

As you can learn from our recent webinar, sustainable finance continues to break records.  In 2021, Green, Social, Sustainability-linked bond issuance reached $1T.  $700B  flowed into ESG finance, representing a 200% increase in the last two years. In 2022, we expect this trend will continue and these figures will reach new heights.

Our Sustainable Investing webinar featured experts:

Our great panelists shared their insights into what stood out for them about the Impact Investing space:

• There are many niche fund manager sprouting globally across asset classes, and not just in climate, but also in diversity & inclusion, sustainable agriculture, regenerative economies, etc.
• The Labor Dept. in 2021 proposed a new rule that gives ERISA funds more flexibility to invest into ESG strategies which represent $45T in retirement assets.
• Many unicorns, zebras, and new funding emerged in 2021 in renewable energy, eMobility, battery recycling, impact measurement.
• 14 cents of every dollar invested in VC went to the climate tech space in 2021.

The panelists also share their opinions on where they think investors are most committed to impact and see the greatest opportunities in 2022:

• Custom Impact Investments: investors want to align portfolios with their vision for the future like improving access to clean water, climate action, and financial inclusion.
• More capital is being invested in circular systems such as alternative and lab grown meats, urban permaculture, carbon sequestration, green fashion.
• We see larger ticket sizes and numerous exits in sustainable verticals, attracting new entrants and more institutional capital.

Additionally, pressing needs of the impacting investing space were presented: Adaptation, Mitigation, and Climate Justice.  When we address mitigation, we can also aim to solve this by reducing corporate and portfolio carbon footprints  Note-worthy views were shared regarding how portfolio investors approach net-zero investing. We also covered the growing carbon credit market, and innovative applications in the DAO and NFT space.

Looking into the future, with the question of what should investors do to shift their assets into Climate Impact and ESG?

The panelists came up with a strategy to hone in on this budding investment avenue.

1.  Analyze real-world evidence-based sustainability strategies that are critical to the  team, fund, business, family office and all relevant stakeholders.
2.  Estimate the current carbon footprint and ESG risk of the portfolio.
3.  Define a cogent roadmap towards net-zero and reaching ESG and impact milestones.