Tag: Sustainability
The Hidden Truths of Your Recycling Bin with Rose Griego-Kiel (Ep. 99)

The Hidden Truths of Your Recycling Bin with Rose Griego-Kiel (Ep. 99)

By |

You think you’re green, but is your recycling bin lying to you?

In this compelling episode, Kimberly Griego-Kiel hosts a special conversation on the complex landscape of recycling with guest expert her wife, Rose Griego-Kiel. Together, they dig into the challenges, statistics, and potential solutions surrounding recycling systems, not just in the U.S. but globally.

Throughout the episode, Kimberly and Rose discuss:

  • A deep dive into alarming recycling statistics
  • A comparison of recycling systems around the world
  • The limitations and inefficiencies of current recycling systems, particularly in handling plastics
  • Consumer versus corporate responsibility in waste management, with an emphasis on sustainable packaging
  • Innovative solutions and educational platforms that creatively repurpose plastic waste
  • And much more!

Resources:

Connect with Rose Griego-Kiel:

Connect with Kimberly Griego-Kiel and Johann Klaassen:

About Our Guest:

Rose Griego-Kiel is a seasoned expert in accounting and financial analysis. Rose brings hands-on experience in both the corporate and non-profit worlds. She serves on multiple non-profit boards and is an advocate for financial transparency and ethical governance.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | Email | TuneIn | RSS | More
Your Quarterly Market Update with Johann Klaassen (Ep. 98)

Your Quarterly Market Update with Johann Klaassen (Ep. 98)

By |

What’s new in the market? 

How’s the investment arena doing so far? What if we all started investing like we truly cared?

In this episode, Kimberly Griego-Kiel and Johann Klaassen navigate the current markets while providing a snapshot of the economy and all things inflation and investing. They debunk common misconceptions surrounding gold as an investment and shed light on the increasingly popular concept of ‘green gold’ and its actual environmental impact. 

Kim and Johann leave no stone unturned! Listen in as they guide us through the uncharacteristic behaviors of bonds and the implications of investing in precious metals.

Throughout the episode, Kim and Johann discuss:

  • Advice for those concerned about their portfolio or the markets
  • The intriguing phenomenon of uncharacteristic bond behavior and its potential impact
  • The reality behind the allure of gold as an investment and those who stand to gain
  • What you need to know about ‘green gold’ and its environmental consequences
  • The hidden environmental and social costs of investing in precious metals
  • And more!

Resources:

Connect with Kimberly Griego-Kiel and Johann Klaassen:

About Our Guest:

Johann A. Klaassen, Ph.D., is the CEO and Chief Investment Officer for Horizons Sustainable Financial Services, where he develops asset allocation strategies and oversees investment policy for Horizons’ individual and institutional clients. As a passionate advocate for SRI, a skilled navigator of its intricacies, and an enthusiastic early adopter of just about every new communication tool and technology, Johann is informed, informative, and far more accessible than his many commitments might imply. He directly serves clients across the nation, tending to specialize in serving unusual and special circumstances or needs.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | Email | TuneIn | RSS | More
W.T.F — What The Fahrenheit!? (Ep. 97)

W.T.F — What The Fahrenheit!? (Ep. 97)

By |

Temperatures are rising, and extreme weather events are becoming way more frequent. 

So, what are we waiting to address this pressing issue head-on!?

In this episode, Kim Griego-Kiel explores the alarming rise in global temperatures and the consequences of climate change.

Join in as Kim shares eye-opening statistics about the effects of these rising temperatures on human health and ecosystems while reinforcing the urgency for collective action to combat climate change.

Kim discusses:

  • The correlation between rising temperatures and environmental degradation
  • The consequences of climate change on human health, ecosystems, and global stability
  • The importance of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and supporting alternative energy sources
  • What you need to know about COP28 and its potential to drive change in the oil and gas industry
  • And more!

Resources:

Connect with Kimberly Griego-Kiel and Johann Klaassen:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | Email | TuneIn | RSS | More

FEATURED IMAGE
Achieving Climate Targets: Here’s Why Failure Leads to Lessons & Changes with Pooja Khosla — Part II (Ep. 93)

Achieving Climate Targets: Here’s Why Failure Leads to Lessons & Changes with Pooja Khosla — Part II (Ep. 93)

By |

Climate change is not a fantasy. It is an undeniable reality, impacting us in ways we cannot ignore. 

In fact, it’s believed that we will likely not make it to our goal of limiting the planet’s warming by 1.5 degrees in the next six years.

This week,  Pooja Khosla, the Chief Innovation Officer at Entelligent, is back to chat with Kim Griego-Kiel about climate change and strategies chief operating officers (COO) of companies can implement to facilitate climate change-related improvements within their own practices. 

Together, they unpack the importance of setting achievable goals and making small, incremental changes to various systems, processes, and policies.

Pooja discusses:

  • Reasons businesses need to focus on green policies while transitioning to renewable energy sources to make the planet more sustainable
  • The value of achieving climate targets and the relevancy of the situation
  • The possibility of achieving climate targets in less than 80 years
  • Five principle-based initiatives chief operating officers (COO) should consider when it comes to supporting climate change and ESG strategies
  • How to avoid greenwashing
  • The role of banks and financial professionals when it comes to sustainability and supply chain initiatives 
  • And more!

Resources:

Connect with Pooja Khosla:

Connect with Kimberly Griego-Kiel and Johann Klaassen:

About Our Guest:

Dr. Pooja Khosla is the Chief Innovation Officer at Entelligent. Dr. Khosla is an econometrician and data scientist with extensive experience in data analysis, predictive modeling, econometrics, statistics, microfinance, and mutual fund analysis. 

Dr. Khosla is one of the inventors of the patented Smart Climate® technology. She brings her international background in finance, academia, predictive modeling, and statistical software platforms to the company, leading product and client development. 

She has published articles and papers in trade journals, including Pensions & Investments, CFA NYC, and Morning Consult.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | Email | TuneIn | RSS | More

FEATURED IMAGE
Here’s What You Should Know About ESG Mistakes and Real Estate Sustainability with Sam Adams (Ep. 87)

Here’s What You Should Know About ESG Mistakes and Real Estate Sustainability with Sam Adams (Ep. 87)

By |

What do real estate and sustainability have in common?

This week, Sam Adams, the CEO and co-founder of Vert Asset Management, unpacks the ins and outs of sustainable investing and the need for more sustainability in the real estate arena.

Sam shares Vert’s approach to educating and encouraging companies to take the next step in their sustainability journey while highlighting how the firm advocates for more sustainability in the financial services industry.

Sam discusses:

  • Sustainable investing and the need for more sustainability in the real estate industry 
  • Some eye-opening ESG mistakes advisors might be making
  • The difference between ESG and SRI
  • Ways the real estate strategy fits into the sustainable investing model
  • An overview of the book he’s co-writing, “Your Essential Guide to Sustainable Investing” 
  • What you should know about the Vert Asset Management fund
  • And more!

Resources:

Connect with Sam Adams:

Connect with Kimberly Griego-Kiel:

About Our Guest: 

Samuel Adams is the CEO of Vert Asset Management. Sam is an environmentalist and a capitalist passionate about preserving and defending nature and has worked as an investment professional. He has 20 years of experience at Dimensional Fund Advisors, where he learned the power of the markets as an Investment Professional. Sam is passionate about making sustainable investing easier for financial advisors and their clients. He also holds a BA from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and an MBA from UC Davis Graduate School of Management.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | Email | TuneIn | RSS | More
Critical Climate and Diversity Stakeholder Resolutions for 2023 with Andy Behar (Ep. 85)

Critical Climate and Diversity Stakeholder Resolutions for 2023 with Andy Behar (Ep. 85)

By |

How much do you know about corporate responsibility and sustainability?

This week, Andy Behar, the CEO of As You Sow, joins Kim Griego-Kiel to talk about the nonprofit organization’s role in shaking up the business world with its innovative environmental and social justice approach. 

Listen in as Andy details the ins and outs of creating a more sustainable and equitable future for this and the years to come.

Andy discusses:

  • As You Sow’s vision and mission  
  • The importance of climate action in the corporate resolution filings for 2023 
  • The value of more companies incorporating diversity, equity, and inclusion
  • As You Sow’s role in helping companies minimize the dangers of pesticides in our food system
  • What you should know about company transparency and accountability 
  • Ways As You Sow is working to reduce plastic demand 
  • What you should know about stranded assets
  • And more!

Resources:

Connect with Andy Behar:

Connect with Kimberly Griego-Kiel:

About Our Guest:

Andy Behar is CEO of As You Sow, the nation’s leading non-profit practitioner of shareholder advocacy and engagement. With a 30-year track record of success, the organization advances values-aligned investing and uses shareholder power to compel companies to reduce material risk on issues including climate change; toxins in the food system; ocean plastics; diversity, equity, and inclusion; racial justice; and wage equity.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | Email | TuneIn | RSS | More
VegTech™ Invest, The Revolution in Plant-Based Innovation ETFs ⁠— Part 2 with Elysabeth Alfano (Ep. 79)

VegTech™ Invest, The Revolution in Plant-Based Innovation ETFs ⁠— Part 2 with Elysabeth Alfano (Ep. 79)

By |

Plant-based innovations in food play an important role in solving food insecurities. 

So, how do we reduce plastics in packaging without using animal-based materials?

In this episode, Elysabeth Alfano is back to explore the ins and outs of our current plant-based revolution. Elysabeth sheds light on investing in animal-free meat and the reasons we need to move away from plastic packaging.

By exploring market trends and reviewing the different sustainable options in food and packaging around the world, Elysabeth also explains ways that climate change and food injustices will translate to the bottom line.

Elysabeth discusses:

  • The five plant-based sectors that VegTech™ Invest is funding and why
  • Ways the firm is investing in reducing plastic using animal-free material supply systems
  • How Anheuser-Busch is supporting precision fermentation to create animal-free meat
  • Ways you can invest in VegTech™ Invest’s EATV with little capital
  • And more!

Resources:

Connect with Elysabeth Alfano:

Connect with Kimberly Griego-Kiel:

About Our Guest:

As the CEO of VegTech™ Invest and the advisor to the VegTech Plant-based Innovation & Climate ETF, EATV, Elysabeth Alfano combines her business leadership and investing experience in the plant-based business arena. Helping to define and grow the new investment sector of Plant-based Innovation, her expertise is investing in the companies that are innovating with plants to produce animal-free products for sustainable consumption.

A sought-after speaker, Elysabeth discusses the intersection of sustainability and the global food supply system on radio, TV, at conferences, in boardrooms, and, most recently, at the United National Global Leaders Compact Summit. She also hosts a weekly Plantbased Business Hour interview show.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | Email | TuneIn | RSS | More

FEATURED IMAGE
57. Sustainable Shareholder Advocacy with Leslie Samuelrich, Sam Adams, and Sarah Adams – Part 3

57. Sustainable Shareholder Advocacy with Leslie Samuelrich, Sam Adams, and Sarah Adams – Part 3

By |

For this episode of the four-part ESG for Impact! miniseries, Kimberly invites three difference-makers in sustainable shareholder advocacy to outline their unique focus on ESG investing and mutual funds.

This week, Leslie Samuelrich, the president of Green Century Funds, and Kim explore plastic pollution, recycling, climate change, sustainable supply chains and how Leslie’s campaigns are pushing for change in these areas.

Additionally, Vert Asset Management’s Chief Executive Officer, Sam Adams, and Chief Sustainability Officer, Sarah Adams, join Kim to explain how they work together to drive change with sustainable real estate with companies that are either constructing or maintaining buildings.

Kim, Leslie, Sarah, and Sam discuss:

  • The plastic we consume and waste we create due to improper recycling practices
  • Ways Green Century Funds’ approach to supply chains and the disposable economy 
  • How to make real estate more sustainable
  • Ways the ESG For Impact! conference has contributed to the sustainable and  collaborative investment arena
  • And more!

Resources:

Connect with Leslie Samuelrich:

Connect with Sam Adams:

Connect with Sarah Adams:

Connect with Kimberly Griego-Kiel

About Leslie Samuelrich:

Leslie leads Green Century Capital Management and focuses on the firm’s investment strategies, business development, and impact investing program. The Green Century Funds have experienced 570% growth under her leadership. Ms. Samuelrich has more than 25 years of experience in ESG investing, corporate engagement, and environmental and public health advocacy. Her comments have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, the New York Times, Responsible Investor, Barron’s, and many other outlets. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment (US SIF) and the Advisory Board of the Intentional Endowments Network. 

About Sam Adams:

Sam is the CEO of Vert Asset Management.  Sam is an environmentalist and a capitalist passionate about preserving and defending nature and has worked as an investment professional. He has 20 years of experience at Dimensional Fund Advisors, where he learned the power of the markets as an Investment Professional. Sam is passionate about making sustainable investing easier for financial advisors and their clients. He also holds a BA from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and an MBA from UC Davis Graduate School of Management. 

About Sarah Adams:

Sarah is the Chief Sustainability Officer and Co-founder at Vert Asset Management. Sarah leads on the engagement processes to define how the company operates, ways to influence the financial services sector, and ways shareholders can be active stewards of capital for ESG and better business practices. She started in financial services at a boutique brokerage firm during the late 90s dot-com boom.  

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | Email | TuneIn | RSS | More

FEATURED IMAGE
55. How we can Create a New Economy With Rex Raimond — Part 1

55. How we can Create a New Economy With Rex Raimond — Part 1

By |

In October 2021, Kimberly Griego-Kiel took part in the ESG For Impact! conference in Colorado Springs. 

During this two-day conference, Kim attended sessions focused on SRI investments, strategies, and concepts while connecting with like-minded professionals and industry leaders. 

One of those leaders was Rex Raimond, the director of The Transformational Investing in Food Systems (TIFS) Initiative.

In the first part of the ESG for Impact! miniseries, Rex joins Kim to explain everything around investing in global food systems. They explore how food growth can impact our health and the environment and outline ways we can get into a new sustainable economy.

Kim and Rex discuss:

  • How food systems fit within the ESG arena
  • The destructiveness of the agricultural system
  • The financial component of growing food system operations
  • Consequences of not managing our land properly
  • And more!

Resources:

Connect with Rex Raimond

Connect with Kimberly Griego-Kiel

About Rex Raimond: 

Rex Raimond has more than 20 years of experience developing strategies and building effective partnerships for sustainable and equitable food systems. He applies his partnership-building skills to help build a movement among concessional, impact, and commercial investors, companies, civil society organizations, and other stakeholders to increase investment in principles-aligned food system businesses that are economically viable and deliver sustainable impact. Rex has worked on many aspects of food and agricultural systems transformation, including sustainable finance, crop insurance, and agricultural policy, market incentives for soil health practices, sustainable supply chains, food safety, science and emerging technologies, sustainable landscape planning, and climate change. 

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | Email | TuneIn | RSS | More

FEATURED IMAGE
47. How Harnessing the Power of Information Can Amplify Your Values-Based Investing With Ivka Kalus

47. How Harnessing the Power of Information Can Amplify Your Values-Based Investing With Ivka Kalus

By |

There is great power that comes with knowledge and information.

What can we accomplish if we as investors make use of data and knowledge to drive our impact investing?

In this episode, learn how Promethos Capital, an employee- and majority women-owned institutional investment boutique is doing just this. The firm’s chief investment officer and managing partner, Ivka Kalus, joins Kimberly Griego-Kiel to discuss the gender gap in the investment industry while explaining her firm’s experience and trajectory in value-based (ESG/SRI) equity investing.

Ivka discusses:

  • Ivka’s journey to being ranked as the #3 female portfolio manager in the United States
  • The financial and non-financial metrics of the sustainable investing world 
  • Ways to draw women into the investment arena
  • “Greenwashing” as a necessary step to improve the future of sustainability 
  • And more

Resources:

Connect with Ivka Kalus:

Connect with Kimberly Griego-Kiel:

About Our Guest:

Ivka Kalus is the chief investment officer and managing partner at Promethos Capital, a majority-women-owned global asset management boutique based in Boston. She is an accomplished investor with over two decades’ experience in managing global and international equity portfolios, with significant expertise in sustainable and gender-lens investing. Before co-founding Promethos, Ivka was the lead portfolio manager of International Strategies at Boston Advisors and a senior portfolio manager at Pax World Management.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | Email | TuneIn | RSS | More