Thought Leadership Singapore Is Well-Positioned To Play A Leadership Role In Advancing The Circular Economy
August 3, 2022
As the global race to develop sustainable solutions heats up to advance a circular economy, Singapore finds itself with an enviable opportunity to take a leadership role.
As our team has sourced more than 300 investment opportunities and invested more than $40m in solutions to combat plastic waste and advance the circular economy, we believe Singapore has the ideal conditions to catalyze a reconfiguration of global supply chains and become a resilience hub for advanced manufacturing.
Five Ways Asset Managers Can Drive Better Financial And Impact Performance By Investing With A Gender Lens
June 29, 2022
I am delighted to be co-authoring this column with Ellen Martin, Circulate Capital’s Chief Impact Officer.
In the “real world” application of investing for impact, environmental and social outcomes are inextricably linked. It is only by understanding this fact that innovative investment asset managers can deploy capital to drive multiple positive outcomes at the same time. One such area is the intersection of innovations that address climate change and gender equality.
Why Family Offices And Private Investors Are The Cornerstones Of Impact Investing’s Most Promising Innovations
June 9, 2022
Plentiful. Flexible. The power and desire to move first. Of all investor groups, family offices and private individual investors, particularly ultra-high net worth (UHNW) are the ones driving impact investing forward and getting behind the innovative strategies we need to solve our biggest environmental and social challenges. Over the past couple of years, we have seen numerous surveys, such as the GIIN’s 2020 report, showing that nearly every investor of this type has already or is considering a shift toward sustainable investments of some kind. In this column I explore why private investors and family offices have quickly moved to the front-lines of impact investing, allocating their capital to an array of solutions that provide a range of financial returns and impact outcomes – and all of which are laying the groundwork for institutional capital to follow. I’ll also share some first-hand anecdotes from my experience interacting with individuals and family offices as part of my day job.
A Conversation With The Head Of Morgan Stanley’s Global Sustainable Finance Group: Creating A Playbook For Financial Institutions To Advance The Circular Economy And Alleviate Plastic Pollution
April 8, 2022
I often speak of the important role that corporates play in the development of new climate innovations, particularly with respect to devising new solutions to stem the tide of plastic waste. As we make progress towards the creation of a circular economy and work to mitigate the negative effects of plastic pollution, there is another group whose capital and engagement are critical in bringing scale to solutions: financial institutions.
The Time To Invest In The Circular Economy For Plastics Is Now, According To Google Study
March 18, 2022
The Google-AFARA Plastic Circularity report on whichI wrote a few months back has now been released in full. One of the key findings from the report is that investment is crucial to creating a circular economy for plastics and that there are significantopportunities for investors, particularly at the nexus of climate and plastics. With a recycling value chain that is under pressure like never before, the need for investor engagement has never been greater. But thanks in part to this study, one thing is now clearer than ever – the current challenges facing the value chain present investors with a really unique opportunity to use their capital to steer the recycling industry back towards growth. The time to act and invest in solutions is now.
Love Him Or Hate Him, Larry Fink Is Mainstreaming The Idea Of Stakeholder Capitalism
February 18, 2022
With the short pronouncement in his most recent annual letter that “stakeholder capitalism is capitalism,” Larry Fink may have single-handedly moved the conversation about stakeholder capitalism to the fore in the investment arena. There’s a lot that has already been written on what Mr. Fink didn’t say in his letter and critics can be forgiven for calling out a lot of his letter’s shortcomings (aka, talk is cheap and he’s pretty much leaving the real, hard work up to the rest of us). Yes to all of that.
5 Ways CPG Companies Can Support And Champion Recycling
January 25, 2022
I love getting to work with changemakers who are informing the way we all think about catalyzing action and accelerating solutions to recycling’s biggest pain points. That’s why I’m pleased to share this recent conversation with Shannon Bouton, President and CEO of Delterra, an environmental nonprofit where I serve as a Member of the Board of Directors. Delterra and its flagship initiative, Rethinking Recycling, work with communities in the Global South to build inclusive and financially sustainable waste management and recycling solutions. They also partner with consumer packaged goods (CPG) and retail corporations to absorb this ethically generated supply of recycled materials on an ongoing basis at a fair price, thus breaking the cycle of insufficient supply and low demand that plagues recycling and its economics. What I like about them is their full system approach coupled with their on-the-ground impact and learning. It is rare to find organizations willing and able to deliver on both the ‘big picture thinking’ and the ‘roll up your sleeves and make it happen’ capabilities.
Your Plastic Waste Is Heating Up The Planet: A New Tool Helps Investors Calculate Climate Impact Of Recycling
October 21, 2021
As COP26 leaders gather in Glasgow in two weeks to seek ways to take collective actions that can mitigate the effects of climate change, one important area for them to address is plastic waste pollution. While on the face of it ocean plastic may seem to be an environmental crisis wholly separate from climate change, new studies confirm it’s just the opposite: plastic pollution contributes to climate change. And now for the first time, thanks to a new research tool, we can measure exactly how much improving plastic waste management is reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Here’s how.
Google Study Confirms Impact Investors Are Key To Creating A Circular Economy For Plastics
July 27, 2021
Google GOOG +1.8% teamed up with AFARA and IHS Markit INFO 0.0% to bring big data analytics to the plastic pollution crisis. Their important new study will be released later this summer, but we all recently got a sneak preview via the executive summary and the findings reveal critical and actionable insights.
A key finding, which readers of this column will not be surprised to see highlighted, is that investment is crucial to creating a circular economy for plastics and that there are significant opportunities for investors, particularly at the nexus of climate and plastics.
Solutions To The Plastic Pollution Crisis Will Drive The Next Wave Of Climate-Tech Innovation
April 27, 2021
As mainstream investors scramble to catch up to the burgeoning possibilities of climate-tech investing, one area of enormous opportunity stands out — circular plastic. To drive transformational change, we need to break siloed-thinking and invest holistically in the systems we aim to affect. Some of the most exciting innovations happening today include new technologies that are disrupting a cross-section of supply chains and sectors from materials and fashion to food waste to reusable business models while accelerating the circular economy in plastics. And all of them have a significant and direct impact on climate change.