October 2024

Green, Sustainable and Impact Bonds

This video excerpt celebrates Enterprise’s 40th anniversary – building good, affordable homes and strong communities while tackling systems of inequality.

Welcome to the October issue on “Green, Sustainable and Impact Bonds.” This is our second look at this increasingly diverse marketplace in which companies and funds around the world participate. There are a variety of definitions and distinctions in the multi-trillion dollar ‘green bonds’ marketplace, including sustainability, transition, blue/ocean, impact/social, and sustainability-linked bonds.

Let me begin by acknowledging an important milestone – the 30th anniversary of the Praxis Impact Bond Fund. Over the years, this now billion-dollar fund has seen its appeal broadened from just faith-based investors to now include sustainability and social-impact focused investors. Find out why in this issue.

Additionally, our October issue features an array of topics and writers including: Are Your Bonds Green, Social, or Sustainable? And Climate-Resilient Too? by R. Paul Herman and Liana Lin of HIP Investor Ratings LLC; and Lifting the Lid on Impact Bonds: 5 Questions for Investors with Ross Pamphilon and Mark Duffy of Impax Asset Management. Also find Climate + Community Development: Emerging Investment Frameworks Fuel Transformative Impact by Anna Smukowski of Enterprise Community Partners and Laura Mixter of LISC. Then, recently I took the opportunity to speak with Benjamin Bailey of Praxis Mutual Funds on their 30 years of Investing in Impact Bonds.

You can also read a new article by Sean Kidney of the Climate Bonds Initiative on how the Sustainable Debt Market Passed a $5 Trillion Milestone En Route to a Record Year; and see a new paper on The Investor Case for Fighting Inequality from the Rights CoLab and Oxfam America. And finally, check out our two featured podcasts, the first from Reveal on Retirement Investments Fueling Climate Climate Change and from WSJ on how the Home-Solar Boom May Have Gone Bust.

If you missed our well-received September issue on leading trends in ‘Renewable Energy Investing’ you can still access the globally impactful articles on our website.

In closing, as the busy fall conference season continues, stay up to date on over 50 conferences with GreenMoney’s Global Events Calendar. I personally recommend two of them: the Verge Climate Tech event, October 29th in San Jose and Responsible Investor USA, December 3rd in NYC.

And of course, don’t forget to Vote on November 5th.

– Cliff Feigenbaum, founder & publisher

Lifting the Lid on Impact Bonds: 5 Questions for Investors

Ross Pamphilon and Mark Duffy
Impax Asset Management
Over the last 25 years of investing in impact bonds, we have learned the value of looking beyond labelled green, social and sustainability (GSS) bonds where investors can access a wider range of opportunities to generate positive environmental and social outcomes while pursuing attractive risk-adjusted returns. However, navigating this marketplace requires a nuanced understanding of innovative security structures, evolving standards and project-level impact assessment.
 

Climate+Community Development: Emerging Investment Frameworks Fuel Transformative Impact

Anna Smukowski and Laura Mixter
Enterprise Community Partners and LISC
This practical article is excerpted from the book “What's Possible: Investing Now for Prosperous and Sustainable Neighborhoods,” a collaboration of Enterprise Community Partners, LISC and the New York Fed. What’s Possible offers a variety of impactful solutions for clean energy, resilience, and equity. It’s intended as a playbook for taking collective action to build a stronger and more inclusive future for all.
 

30 Years of Impact Bonds: Q&A with Benjamin Bailey of Praxis and Cliff Feigenbaum

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Praxis Impact Bond Fund, which gives a wide variety of investors access to a broadly diversified core bond portfolio with a focus on green, social and other types of impact bonds. Over the years, the fund’s appeal has broadened from faith-based investors to include sustainability and social-impact focused investors. Its assets have grown from $11 million in 1994 at the fund’s inception to nearly $1 billion today.
 

Are Your Bonds Green, Social or Sustainable? And Climate Resilient Too?

R. Paul Herman and Liana Lin
HIP Investor Ratings LLC
When sailing your portfolio into the future, would you want a top-heavy boat? Or a boat that is stable through the waves of future risks? “Green bonds,” “social bonds,” and “sustainability bonds” – bring comfort to impact investors. Yet, are all those bonds safe for the next 30 years? HIP has evaluated over 11K bonds that bring solutions like reducing pollution, delivering cleaner water, spurring more affordable housing, or bringing climate action forward to society as well as to your portfolio.
 
 

Reveal Podcast – When reporter Jonathan Jones was working on a story about a massive coal plant expansion in Montana, he wondered who was bankrolling the project. It turns out a major shareholder of the energy company driving the project was The Vanguard Group, the investment firm where he happens to have his retirement savings. This discovery put Jones on a quest to find out why Vanguard and other asset managers continue to invest in fossil fuels at a time when we need to burn less.

Sustainable Debt Market Passes $5 Trillion En Route to Record Year by Climate Bonds Initiative

Sustainable Debt Market Passes $5 Trillion En Route to Record Year

Sean Kidney
Climate Bonds Initiative
A cumulative volume of $5.1 trillion in green, social, sustainability, sustainability-linked bonds, and transition bonds (collectively GSS+) has been recorded by the Climate Bonds Initiative as of June 30th of this year. Aligned with CBI’s dataset methodologies and best practice, the findings are detailed in the Sustainable Debt Market Summary H1 2024 with a breakdown of labelled bond markets.
Why Investors Should Tackle Inequality from Rights CoLab and Oxfam America

As an Investor, Why Tackle Inequality?

Joanne Bauer, et al and Sharmeen Contractor
Rights CoLab and Oxfam America
In this article, Rights CoLab and Oxfam America address the various risks that inequality can present for investors. Their recent report. The Investor Case for Fighting Inequality: How Inequality Harms Investors and What Investors Should Do About It, introduces the topic and outlining companies' contributions to inequality. It highlights efforts of investors that are already addressing the risks, many as part of their fiduciary duty.
COP16 Biodiversity Conference new pavilion accelerating global action

New Pavilion at the COP16 Biodiversity Conference on Accelerating Global Action on Sustainable Finance

The Finance for Biodiversity Foundation, UNEP FI and UNDP will host a Finance and Biodiversity Pavilion at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP16). To meet a growing interest from the finance sector, the pavilion will serve as a central hub to discuss the alignment of financial flows with the goals and targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework.
Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund invests in Farmland LP to Support Regenerative Ag

Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund invests in Farmland LP to Support Regenerative Ag

“Farmland LP’s use of regenerative agriculture practices to ensure healthy soils, and therefore high-quality soil carbon credits, is a critical element of advancing nature-based carbon removal solutions. We’re excited to invest in their fund and work with them to create a more sustainable agriculture sector.” said Erika Basham, director of Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund.
FLINTpro Launches Biodiversity Module on Regulatory Financial Risk for Landowners and Investors

FLINTpro Launches Biodiversity Module on Regulatory and Financial Risk for Landowners and Investors

FLINTpro, a nature analytics firm that provides compliance and financial risk assessment products for companies regulated by land use and climate protocols, has launched its Global Biodiversity Module. It offers analysis of the potential impacts of human and industrial activities on nature and the risks associated with their dependencies on ecosystems.
My Millennial Friends Aren’t Investing- But They Should Be

My Millennial Friends Aren’t Investing- But They Should Be

Leah Cantor
LongView Asset Management LLC
I’m in my early 30’s. As someone who works in finance, I know that one of the most important things I can do for myself at this point in my life is develop strong financial habits like saving, budgeting, and investing. Most of my friends work in other fields, and while the majority have a good grasp on budgeting, many aren’t saving as much as they should and even fewer are investing.

 
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