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