Lewis Johnston and Joeri de Wilde - Could the ESG backlash kill sustainable investing?

In this episode, Karel Nierop explores the intriguing landscape of blended finance with David Kuijper, CEO of The Association of European Development Finance Institutions (EDFI) and Judith Santbergen, Fund Manager of the Hivos-Triodos Fonds, a blended finance instrument avant-la-lettre. Kuijper explains what blended finance entails and how it is needed to get important transitions going, especially in emerging markets. Santbergen elaborates on Hivos-Triodos Fonds' ability to do smaller transactions, focusing on SMEs in high impact sectors in emerging markets. Tailored to meet investors’ requirements - be it fiduciary or regulatory - blended finance can open new markets and offer diversification. Despite the difficulties in scaling up, both guests see strong opportunities for blended finance. Given the demographic developments with Europe ageing and declining in population while the global south is young and growing, combined with Europe’s enormous amount of pension savings, there is an urgent need to transition European private capital to emerging markets. Blended finance facilities can help change the direction of private capital flows, for example in sectors where blended finance has proven to work like renewable energy and resilient infrastructure. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Karel Nierop sits down with Kayoko Lyons, Director of Investments at the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart and Tim Crijns, Portfolio Manager Financial Inclusion at Triodos Investment Management to explore the world of financial inclusion. Tim explains how microfinance works, why the actual risks are often lower than perceived, and how local economies show strong resilience. Kayoko shares her investment journey, highlighting the crucial role of financial services in economic development and encouraging new investors to be bold, start small and do something. Together, they discuss future trends, the role of technology, and the importance of maintaining a strong impact mission. The episode closes with practical insights into how investors can contribute responsibly to expanding global financial access.More information about the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart: Welcome to the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus | Bringing Christ's love to the worldMore information about the benefits of backing financial services in emerging markets: The benefits of backing financial services in emerging markets Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The geopolitical storm we are in has accelerated a development that was already visible for some years: a fierce backlash on ESG. In this podcast, Rosl Veltmeijer discusses the implications of this backlash with Lewis Johnston, director of policy at ShareAction and Triodos economist Joeri de Wilde. Together they analyse the events and circumstances that led to the ESG backlash and try to answer the question if we are witnessing a structural shift away from ESG investing or only a temporary setback.Read Joeri's column 'No shift away from sustainability' here: BlackRock never really had sustainable ambitions, more and more citizens doFind out more about the activities of ShareAction here: ShareAction | Harness the power of investment  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Karel Nierop discusses how we can make finance work for nature instead of against with David Diallo, founder of Berlin-based startup goodcarbon, and Mareike Hussels, product development manager for Nature-based Solutions at Triodos Investment Management. The term Nature-based Solutions pops up in the news more and more often but is also still a bit vague for most people. Triodos recently made a commitment to provide at least EUR 500 million in investments, loans and contributions to the Nature-based Solutions sector by the end of 2030 as part of its biodiversity targets. The IPCC ranks certain Nature-based Solutions among the most promising ways to tackle the climate crisis.   But what are Nature-based Solutions exactly? Why is the IPCC so enthusiastic about them? And do they represent an interesting investment case? These are the questions that are addressed in this podcast.Read more about Triodos' commitment to the Nature-based Solutions sector here: Triodos Bank nature-based solutions commitmentMore about the partnership with goodcarbon can be found here: investment Hivos-Triodos Fonds: goodcarbon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Karel Nierop discusses the challenges and opportunities of an energy system under construction with Ronald Huisman, Professor for Sustainable Energy Finance at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam (amongst others), and Kay van der Kooi, Senior Investment Manager at Triodos Investment Management.The energy transition in Europe is in full swing. A main component is the electrification of many processes: from transport and heating to highly energy-intensive industrial processes. This means a large buildout of both generation and consumption of electricity. While the process of electrification is taking up speed, the energy system, which was designed with fossil fuels in mind, is squeaking and creaking. Examples include waiting lines for electricity connection in construction projects and negative energy prices during peak electricity production. Will the initial success now threaten to undermine the energy transition?Interested in learning more about this topic? Read Kay van der Kooi's blog on net congestion here: What’s the hold-up? On the Ins and Outs of Grid Congestion Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Rosl Veltmeijer discusses how to achieve meaningful impact by investing in stock listed companies with Dirk Schoenmaker, Professor of Banking and Finance at Rotterdam School of Management (Erasmus University) and William de Vries, Director Impact Equities and Bonds at Triodos Investment Management.Impact investing is often associated with direct or private investing but is it also possible to invest with impact in public markets (stock listed investments)? And if so, how can this be realised? Dirk Schoenmaker explains that while financing the changemakers is important, it is essential to also finance established companies that are willing to transition in order to shift the system. William de Vries elaborates on the importance of engagement in achieving impact with listed companies. He also emphasises the added value of collaboration with like minded investors. Important takeaway of the discussion: not all impact can be quantified and attributed but the most important thing is that change actually happens.Interested to learn more about generating impact by investing is listed equities? Read this article Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This podcast episode focuses on two pieces of European legislation aimed at supporting the low-carbon transition: the EU Taxonomy and the EU Green Bond Standard. Green bonds play an important role in financing the assets needed for the green transition. With the European Green Bond Standard, the EU wants to set a clear standard for green bonds, based on the detailed criteria of the EU taxonomy to define green economic activities. Portfolio Manager Rosl Veltmeijer discusses the ins and outs of both policies and how they work in practice with Esther Griffioen, Deputy head of Policy and Risk Management at the Dutch State Treasury Agency and Jie Chen, Investment Analyst at Triodos Investment Management - covering both the issuers’ and the investors’ side of green bonds.More information about the EU Taxonomy for sustainable activities can be found hereMore information about the EU Green Bond Standard can be found here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this podcast episode, Karel Nierop discusses what's behind the net zero commitments of the financial sector with Quinten Aubineau, Policy Analyst at bank Track, and Sven Renon, Impact Manager at Triodos Bank.Since the Paris climate agreement, most banks and asset managers have committed themselves to a net zero strategy to be in line with a 1,5-degree global warming scenario. But what does net zero exactly mean? And why is it important for financial institutions to have a net zero strategy in place? Quinten Aubineau explains that having a net zero goal is nice but having a concrete action plan in place to get there is even more important. Sven Renon elaborates on the challenges Triodos Bank is facing on the road to net zero.More information about Triodos Bank's net zero strategy can be found hereMore information about Bank Track can be found here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this podcast episode, Rosl Veltmeijer discusses the challenges of impact performance reporting with Mike McCreless, Executive Director at Impact Frontiers, and Rebecca Spohrer, Impact Manager at Triodos Investment Management. How to report on impact is a much-debated topic within the impact investing industry. To create a common ground for impact reporting, Mike McCreless's Impact Frontiers have created a set of impact reporting norms, based on a public consultation. Together with Triodos Impact Manager Rebecca Spohrer, Rosl Veltmeijer discusses these norms and how they were developed as well as the general challenges and pitfalls of Impact Reporting.Impact Frontiers' impact reporting norms can be found hereTriodos IMs 2023 impact reports can be found here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our current linear, growth-based economy uses vast quantities of resources to make things which we consume and then throw away. This system depletes finite raw materials and produces vast quantities of waste. In this episode of Inside Impact Investing, fund manager Rosl Veltmeijer discusses how we can turn our linear economy into a circular one with Professor in Sustainable Business Nancy Bocken (Maastricht University) and Chief Economist Hans Stegeman (Triodos Bank). Together, they analyse the role of the financial sector in enabling this transition which goes against the logic of our current market economy and forces us to fundamentally rethink the logic of markets, including the role of investors therein.Paper: Pursuing profitability in slow fashionFast fashion is a prime example of our current linear economy with a business model relying on consumers endlessly buying more clothes. Its circular opposite is slow fashion, which embodies products that are made to last, and can be serviced to extend the lifespan. But can slow fashion also be profitable? Read the paper by Nancy Bocken and Sasha Sarokin. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.