Food & Farming

Impact investing has emerged as a major force in philanthropy. Last year GIIN conducted a survey showing that the estimated value of the impact investing sector doubled between 2017 and 2018, increasing from $114B to $228B. There’s a growing demand for investments that actively produce measurable positive social and environmental outcomes. Read More

Sustainable companies don't just make the world a better place, they offer higher returns and longer lifespans according to Corporate Knights. Read More

The 12th annual edition looks at key trends and dozens of metrics assessing how, and how much, companies are moving the needle on the world’s?most pressing environmental challenges. Read More

The structure and mission of credit unions uniquely positions them to effectively provide a range of basic financial services critical to Native communities. Read More

Sourced in Peru and roasted locally by Stolen Sun Craft Brewing & Roasting Co., Impact Coffee supports the empowerment and promotion of women-grown coffee. Read More

Business can be a force for good, here’s 100 companies that are growing by doing good. Real Leaders, with Big Path Capital and B Lab, rank the top companies applying capitalism for greater profit and greater positive impact. Read More

The Next Economy Index’s strong track record demonstrates that climate change-focused, innovation-driven investing offers an effective way to preserve and create wealth. The strategy currently holds 115 publicly traded companies. Read More

MSCI explores pressing topics for investors heading into 2019. The five key ESG trends anticipated to dominate the conversation are: climate change, waste management, leadership and talent, ESG regulation, and the ESG signal revolution. Read More

(Fall 2011)  When Holly Mosher read about Muhammad Yunus and the story of Grameen Bank’s microcredit for women in Bangladesh, she was fascinated. Why had an economist and a bank won the prize for peace and not the prize for economics? And how had one man gone from loaning $27 to 42 people, to helping millions of people? With these questions in mind, she embarked on a film about his work. Read More

Ethical Markets released in late April its 2018 Green Transition Scoreboard® finding $9.3 trillion of private investments in green sectors worldwide, cumulatively since 2007. Read More

Marking its 35th anniversary, Stonyfield Organic, the country’s leading organic yogurt maker, announced in April 2018 a bold commitment that not only celebrates the brand’s organic leadership role in the food space, but also casts an eye to a different and equally as large issue facing families. While huge strides have been made in the organic food space over the past 35 years, less is happening around environmental and health issues specific to the use of pesticides beyond food. Read More

Understanding Food and Climate Change: A Systems Perspective explores the links between food systems and our changing climate with an emphasis on systems thinking. A systems approach helps to illuminate how seemingly disconnected phenomena are often dynamically linked and can be understood best when viewed in a larger context. Read More

Iroquois Valley Farms has reached a milestone: This spring we added the 50th farm to our portfolio. Our farmland REIT provides secure land tenure for 35 farm families working 9,000 acres of farmland. More families will be joining us soon. We have seen strong and steady growth in the value of our investment portfolio since 2007. We recently launched a new offering to raise $20 million to help fund more farmers. We also offer Soil Restoration Notes to investors, with a portion of the returns going to help our farmers transitioning to organic. Read More

On February 2016 The New York Times ran a story, "Oaxaca’s Native Maize Embraced by Top Chefs in US and Europe", highlighting the work of a new company called Masienda that was sourcing landrace (heirloom) corn from small farms in Mexico. Masienda’s business model emphasizes conservation of agrobiodiversity, while supporting smallholders using sustainable/organic farming methods. When some of us here in Santa Fe saw this article we asked the question, "Why can’t this be happening in New Mexico as well?" And so the New Mexico Landrace Corn Project was born. Read More

The challenge is clear for global food and beverage companies: as the population rises, the agriculture sector they rely on will need to produce more food with fewer greenhouse gas emissions while shifting toward farm practices that conserve or restore diminishing water and soil resources. Sustainable sourcing strategies and supply chain transparency are essential for the food and beverage industry to ensure that their suppliers are making these critical changes. As significant owners of and lenders to companies, investors can be a major force in driving more sustainable practices. Read More

American consumers in 2017 filled more of their grocery carts with organic, buying everything from organic produce and organic ice cream to organic fresh juices and organic dried beans, according to the Organic Trade Association's 2018 Organic Industry Survey released in mid-May. Read More

Farming, like investments, carries some degree of risk. How SFP mitigates these risks is unique and key to the opportunity. Market demand for organic food is the fastest growing segment in grocery stores. Geographically, our established operating network of farms is spread out to minimize the impact of local weather. Our distributed farm network is focused on areas with the best available soil and linking that network allows us to negotiate better offtake agreements and discounts on inputs. In the event of any crop damage due to weather, which diminishes yields, we have crop insurance. Read More

The story begins with a strange orange glow in the sky that awakened me at one AM on the morning of Oct 9th, 2017. Stepping outside into a howling wind, I watched in horror as a huge wildfire burned on the distant ridge. The wind was blowing away from us, so I was very concerned about our neighbors below the ridge in Potter Valley, never dreaming that at the same time the Redwood Complex Fire was racing around the bottom of the ridge and heading straight to Frey Vineyards and engulfing the only paved road out. Read More

Industry’s only free, searchable resource of impact investing fund managers features firms that manage $29.2 billion in assets Read More

Global businesses can and must take the lead on environmental and social issues, because the future of sustainability is now in the hands of worldwide brands, their consumers, and the NGOs holding them accountable. Read More

Bigger, faster, more. Whether due to policy, technological or climatic changes, companies face an onslaught of challenges that are happening sooner and more dramatically than many could have anticipated. Investors in turn are Read More

New research finds businesses are making money from planting trees and growing sales as rapidly as 10 times per year Many investors don t know what restoration is or realize the Read More

In 2014, I predicted that "Desert Greening is the Next Big Thing", and it would be led by sustainable green investors. Surprisingly I am still waiting for the shift from humanity’s single minded focus on traditional agricultural crops (glycophytes) that rely on the planet’s three percent of fresh water. Why such a slow transition to more sustainable, nutrient-richer, salt loving (halophyte) plant foods, such as quinoa? Because vested interests in the vast incumbent global agro-chemical industrial complex are as powerful and persistent as those in the worldwide fossilized sectors. Read More

Over the past decade, the term sustainability has caught on in the boardroom, courtroom and living room. While the concept has reached the mainstream, opportunities abound for implementation.

Ten trends to watch for Read More

What never grows old? The burning desire of youth to reinvent the world. That ambition and impatience is on full display in Forbes 2018 edition of the Forbes 30 Under 30, our annual Read More

Domini is proud to announce that we have recently signed the Stockholm Declaration, re-affirming our support for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). The Stockholm Declaration was organized by the GRI Read More

Last year, as CEI conducted a strategic review as part of our leadership transition, we found ourselves asking the same questions that were being asked across the country, on both sides of the political aisle. At the heart of those questions was the recognition that our economy is not working for everyone. And a major takeaway was that rural regions, gateway cities, and the people who live there were being left behind. Maine-based CEI is taking strides to change that, from investing in small businesses, job training programs, and pragmatic policy solutions. Read More

After decades of working at the intersection of community development, philanthropy and community economic development, we see a significant shift in how philanthropic assets are being used to build vibrant, prosperous communities. Many place-focused foundations are seeking to complement their grantmaking with local investments to create greater impact in their own communities. There’s a growing recognition that traditional grantmaking is not enough to address complex, tough community issues like early childhood education, affordable and energy efficient housing, good jobs and career opportunities for all. Read More

Green Century Capital Management announced recently that its assets under management (AUM) reached a new landmark, exceeding $500 million as of October 20, 2017. Green Century is the investment advisor to the first Read More

ImpactAssets announced in September 2017 the addition of new lower minimum, high-impact investment options within the ImpactAssets Giving Fund (www.impactassets.org), its donor advised fund. The four private debt and equity investments are managed Read More

For more than 40 years, Muhammad Yunus, the Bangladeshi founder of the Grameen Bank and recipient of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize[1], has been asserting that the most powerful way to eradicate poverty Read More

Aligning the capital markets more directly with the urgent needs we face as a society to halt environmental destruction and reverse decades of worsening inequality must be our priority for 2018. Alignment needs to occur at every level, across the global markets. Despite the tremendous efforts behind the Paris Climate Accord, formalization of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and a long history of other efforts to change the course of climate change and inequality, we are not making nearly the progress needed. The 1,700 signatories to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment, which represent $70 trillion of assets and a wave of press about ESG investing, have not gotten us on track yet. Read More

LIFT Economy was recently recognized for creating extraordinary positive impact as a business based on an independent, comprehensive assessment administered by the nonprofit B Lab. Honorees are featured on B the Change, Read More

Financial technology provider ImpactUs announced in Sept and October the onboarding of six additional issuers to its impact investing platform, ImpactUs Marketplace. The Marketplace is a community-driven fintech platform offering institutions, individuals and Read More

It’s Monday morning, the beginning of a new week. The day starts with greeting the sunrise from our garden that faces to the East. A few minutes of taking in the energy that provides us so many benefits every day, and then some meditation, establishes the foundation for all else. After a stroll in the garden it is time to enter into the technological universe with a quick review of Bloomberg.com and WSJ.com. What is happening on the global stage and in the financial markets? How are the markets doing and how might global factors and the events of the day impact the people that I work with? Read More

In northern Montana, Doug and Anna Jones-Crabtree restore soil health while growing organic heirloom and specialty grains, pulse and oilseed crops on 4,700 acres. A thousand miles away in Central Minnesota, the Main Street Project sequesters carbon as it transforms 100 acres of bare ground to a permaculture farm alive with hazelnut trees and foraging chickens. Read More

Leading community development financial institution (CDFI) Virginia Community Capital (VCC) and the nationally recognized Center for Rural Entrepreneurship (CRE) announced in June the launch of LOCUS Impact Investing (LOCUS), a new social enterprise to empower place-focused foundations to invest their capital locally to build prosperous, vibrant communities. Read More

As an entrepreneur, I lean optimistic, and so here are a few predictions for where the organic marketplace is heading. Several megatrends will combine to keep the sales of organic foods growing at a robust rate, they include: Increased awareness about the negative health impacts and costs of widespread agrichemical exposures; Organic Certification will remain the only reliable standard for consumers seeking real, clean foods; the positive role that organics can play in mitigating the effects of climate change including better data on the benefits of organic production; and Lower cost organic offerings. Read More

The for-profit subsidiary of a West Side nonprofit that provides transitional jobs for the formerly incarcerated in its production of local honey and honey-infused skincare products; a company that employs adults with autism founded by the father of an affected child; a collaborative created to renew a corridor that was once the heart of entertainment and shopping on Chicago’s south and southwest side – these are three of the beneficiaries of the first loans to be made by the impact investment fund established for Benefit Chicago. Read More

We at Iroquois Valley Farms are pleased to announce a new corporate entity as we begin our 11th season of operations. In 2007 when we started the company, our idea was simple - growing healthy foods on organic soils would be good business. Read More

Imagine you are seated on a patio in the Tuscan countryside. The fresh mozzarella coupled with sweet tomatoes, ripe from the warm sun, pairs beautifully with the garlic sourdough bread and crisp local wine. The setting opens the heart and soothes the soul. The vineyard you overlook is in its crucial stage of ripening, that last conversion of acid to sugar, and the company of friends and family couldn’t be better. Read More

Hundreds of people have died in northern Kenya in recent months due to conflict between armed cattle herders and the wildlife conservation community. During my visits to this part of Kenya over the last two years, I was surprised to find livestock in a region renowned for wildlife. Read More

I often refer to Slow Money as "the CSA of investing." As with community-supported agriculture, our efforts revolve around informal, direct relationships and shared risk. Slow Money funding is flowing in a variety of ways in dozens of communities across the United States (and a few in Canada and France) — peer-to-peer lending, investment clubs, angel networks and pitch fests at public events large and small. Join us for the SOIL 2017 Conference this October, in Boulder, CO. Read More

A group of investors has released a new white paper, Impact Investing in Sustainable Food and Agriculture across Asset Classes: Financing Resilient Value Chains through Total Portfolio Activation. Read More

April 18, 2017 marked the publication of an ambitious new book with the audacious goal of showing how to reverse the warming of the planet through a myriad of innovations, many of them led by business for profit. Read More

In late April 2017, the latest Green Transition Scoreboard® (GTS) found that, despite Trump’s anti-green policies, private green investments now total more than $8.1 trillion USD ($8,133,456,730,370). Read More

As most everyone interested in sustainability knows by now, the concept has been appropriated by numerous entities and used in various ways, often to achieve different objectives. In his introductory chapter to the excellent 2013 edition of the Worldwatch Institute’s State of the World report, Robert Engelman coined the term "sustainababble" to reflect this "cacophonous profusion of uses of the word sustainable to mean anything from environmentally better to cool". Read More

Whole Foods Market CEO John Mackey announced the release of his new book last month, The Whole Foods Diet: The Lifesaving Plan for Health and Longevity. Mackey co-authored the book with Dr. Alona Pulde and Dr. Matthew Lederman, known for the documentary, Forks Over Knives. Read More

Interview with Jon Bishop and Laura Dreese For the past decade, for-profit microfinance company Envest Microfinance has been striving to bridge the gap between microfinance and financial markets to make access to financial services universally available. It has tapped into support from individual and institutional investors to provide sustainable financing to the world’s economically marginalized and geographically isolated populations. Read More

Sustainalytics, a leading global provider of ESG and corporate governance research, ratings and analytics, recently released a new thematic research report titled, 10 for 2017: Investment Themes in a Changing World. The report looks at the key drivers of 10 ESG investment themes that are expected to create new risks and opportunities for investors in 2017. In addition, the report profiles 10 companies, spanning seven countries and eight industries, that are poised to take advantage of these trends. Read More

New condiments, functional beverages and natural foods

Recently, Whole Foods Market’s (NASDAQ: WFM) global buyers and experts announced the trends to watch in 2017. Wellness tonics, products from byproducts and purple foods are just a few top predictions according to the trend-spotters, who share more than 100 years of combined experience in sourcing products and tracking consumer preferences. Read More

Back in November, when we announced we’d give 100 percent of our global retail and online Black Friday sales directly to grassroots nonprofits working on the frontlines to protect our air, water and soil for future generations, we heard from many of our customers calling it a “fundraiser for the earth.” Read More