Investment & Markets, Socially Responsible Investing (SRI)

Can an investment help the pocketbook and the planet at the same time? Definitely, says R. Paul Herman, author of The HIP Investor: Making Better Profits by Building a Better World. Following is an excerpt from Herman’s book. Explore the options, and put your money on a wiser course… What frameworks are useful in evaluating real estate [...]

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Times remain hard across the country, but solar power is a bright spot in Tennessee’s economy. The Volunteer State is Hemlock Semiconductor and Wacker Chemie polysilicon and Sharp Solar plants, and solar power projects are cropping up around the Tennessee Valley despite the state’s lack of a Renewable Power Standards (RPS).

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This post outlines key considerations for property owners to evaluate when leasing their land for renewable energy development. There are pros and cons to leasing your property to a renewable energy developer and/or owner to earn revenue. It is important to understand how to navigate the complexities of benefits and risks when dealing with newly emerging renewable energy development land leases.

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We are MBA students studying the interconnections of sustainability and business at the Presidio Graduate School. As part of our curriculum, we are developing a capital markets mechanism to monetize ecosystem services that would incentivize communities to preserve and/or rehabilitate vital local ecosystems, such as watersheds. This is a letter of inquiry to engage the Packard Foundation (the Foundation) as an investor in a proof of concept pilot project for the above model.

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We are writing to commend your vote on Oct. 18, 2011, to implement position limits on commodities speculators, including oil speculators. Further, we would like to voice some of our concerns regarding the regulation of oil price speculation and the affects on the general well-being of the American people in response to the CFTC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking RIN 3038-AD15 and RIN-AD16 on the topic of Position Limit for Commodity Derivatives, dated January 26, 2011.

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Last week could be considered a good week for Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protestors – Bank of America backed off its plans to charge debit card fees due to public pressure and SaveUp, a new program rewarding people not for spending, but for saving, was launched. Although the launch of SaveUp has no direct connection [...]

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There are important breakthroughs in transportation technology that you might not know about.

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An open letter to the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry

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From 1977 to 1986, student activism on campuses across the United States drove anti-apartheid divestment that eventually pressured the South African government to begin negotiations that led to the end of the apartheid system. With the power to effect change of this magnitude, imagine what else can be accomplished by an impact investment approach to endowment fund management. A new program of the Sustainable Endowments Institute, in partnership with 16 other organizations including AASHE, The Clinton Climate Initiative and Net Impact, is helping academic institutions and other non-profits to do just that.

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Putting a “green” twist on the concept of Free Trade Agreement, the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development is advocating the enactment of Sustainable Energy Trade Agreements to speed up the development and adoption of renewable energy and clean technology globally. By supplementing incentives such as feed-in tariffs and tax credits, SETAs could function as integral facets of pro-sustainable energy policy frameworks, the ICTSD says.

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Adam Capital Clean Energy Finance, a private investment firm, has agreed to lend $1 million to finance rooftop solar panels for 85 low-income homes in New Orleans. The loan is with Sustainable Environmental Enterprises of Louisiana, a community-development organization engaged in financing solar projects for disadvantaged communities. A joint press release from Adam Capital and [...]

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R. Paul Herman, founder and CEO of HIP Investor, discusses the difference between impact investing and socially responsible investing, how HIP evaluates firms, and how you can shape your investment strategy to create a positive impact.

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Impact investing has the potential to change the world. By driving more money and investments into green businesses, the field stands to facilitate the needed transition in the global economy to a more sustainable, regenerative one. Recently, I attended a talk by Murray Clay, of the Ulupono Initiative. Ulupono has been billed as the only [...]

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Smart grids are billed as the hub of a smarter, more sustainable and democratized electricity distribution system, a core element of making a transition from fossil fuel to cleaner, renewable energy sources. Investing in smart grids is also touted as an engine for creating relatively well-paying, clean tech jobs. A study released yesterday by the Silicon Valley Smart Grid Task Force found that these claims aren’t unfounded.

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With more causes, more donors, and more philanthropic platforms than ever, who is overseeing the $300B philanthropy market and how are investors and donors kept informed?

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Yes, I admit, the title is a double-entendre. There are two ways it can be read. Mostly, when this question has been asked, it is referring to how long the people will remain at the site. Will they stay once it really gets cold? Last week’s storm was a test of that. I would say [...]

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By Jacen Greene “We’re going to occupy Wall Street from the inside.” Those words, spoken as part of the introductory speech of the 2011 Net Impact Conference, certainly applied to the topics and audience of a conference panel on “Finance for Good: Creating a Career with Impact.” The wide-ranging discussion covered topics such as how [...]

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By Jacen Greene From Quaker prohibitions on slave trading, to boycotts of firms doing business in apartheid South Africa, to analyzing corporate carbon emissions, Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) has come a long way. In a panel session called “SRI 3.0: the Evolution of Socially Responsible Investing” at the 2011 Net Impact Conference, a group of [...]

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Bank of America is the first of a number of banks looking to unveil a monthly debit card fee upon its’ customers. This announcement has received a large amount of public backlash and media attention. At a point in time in which consumer debt is decreasing as people utilize debit cards for payment, the banks are looking to impose fee constraints on that behavior. Why? Aren’t smart financial decisions by our people a good thing?

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Ormat Nevada announced five awards to explore for geothermal resources in Chile while the 2011 GEA Expo taking place in San Diego this week highlights Southern California’s geothermal resources.

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Investors Urging Governments to Enact Comprehensive Climate Change, Clean Energy Policies Global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from energy production reached the highest level ever recorded in 2010, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), yet investment and spending in low-carbon and clean energy systems are falling far short of what’s required to address climate change. [...]

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The South African government will enact an emissions cap and new energy industry regulations in an effort to spur development of alternative, clean and renewable energy and mitigate climate change. The new regulations will penalize heavy polluters that don’t comply with greenhouse gas emission limits with fines.

The new plan was adopted by the South African cabinet of President Jacob Zuma Tuesday in advance of UN Framework Convention on Climate Change representatives from around the world converging on the South African coastal city of Durban later this year in what’s set to be the most important round of UN efforts to hammer out a successor or alternative to the 1992 Kyoto Protocol since the UNFCCC’s 2009 Conference of Parties gathering in Copenhagen in 2009.

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GRI recently released a report on why sustainability reporting is important for listed companies. At a recent event hosted by the Shangai Stock Exchange, they observed that all State Owned Enterprises in China must produce reports. As a result, China has seen a huge increasing in reporting in the private sector as well.  The Shangai [...]

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IBM’s signing on as a member of EcoGrid EU, a consortium of companies that is planning a European Union (EU) smart grid that will source at least 50% of its electrical power from renewable sources, such as wind, solar and biogas. Smart grids are central elements in making the transition from fossil fuel-based to clean, renewable energy systems. It will take massive investments in electrical power infrastructure and may take a decade or more to make the transition worldwide. The EcoGrid EU project is likely to speed up the process substantially.

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Community members, local leaders, solar power industry participants, state government officials and members of Congress gathered in Mount Airy, North Carolina Oct. 10 to dedicate next week’s commissioning of the Mayberry Solar Farm, the first of its kind in Surry County. The solar power farm project offers a prime example of how, with effective support and incentives, public-private sector partnerships collaborating on renewable energy projects can succeed in generating jobs and helping local businesses, as well as building community and improving the health and quality of the local environment.

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Philippe Cousteau, grandson of famed oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, aimed to accomplish two goals when he spoke at SXSW Eco last week. First, he came to talk about environmental conservationism with a receptive audience. Second, he came to announce two new endeavors, a conscious investment fund, and a grant-making foundation. Cousteau’s polished speech hit all the [...]

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Could this be the beginning of a new kind of investing, something as powerful, in its own right, as protest? As powerful as conscientious objecting? Can we call it conscientious investing?

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The Occupy Wall Street movement has grown exponentially over the past week. What began as a movement targeting Wall Street has turned into something larger than just economic circumstances, but encompassing social and environmental concerns. Let’s take a systems thinking look at just blaming Wall Street, and why Wall Street is only a symptom of the [...]

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If you ask most people whether they value the lives of future generations, they will say “yes.”  If you ask many economists, they’ll likely say, “that depends on people’s willingness to pay.”

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The meteoric rise of collaborative consumption start-ups, such as AirBnB, GoGrubly, Getaround, thredUp, and SnapGoods, to name a few, is arguably due to social media and the people-powered networks that support them. This marketplace is quickly evolving into a robust open-source business platform. Known as the access economy, it not only reduces society’s footprint by connecting people to shared resources, but increases society’s net worth.

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