Tag Archives: Sustainability

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

March 29, 2023Financial, Investing, Sustainable InvestingDeep Impact Investing, ESG Mistakes, Financial Advisors, Financial Services, Horizons Sustainable Financial Services, Podcast, Real Estate, SRI, Sustainability, Sustainable Investing, Sustainable Investment Education, USSIF, Vert Asset Managementdeepimpactinvesting

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:

“The Top 5 ESG Mistakes Advisors Make” by Sam Adams
Ep 57 – Sustainable Shareholder Advocacy with Leslie Samuelrich, Sam Adams, and Sarah Adams – Part 3
USSIF Courses
USSIF: Sustainable Investment Education
“Your Essential Guide to Sustainable Investing” by Larry E. Swedroe and Sam Adams
Ep 35 – 7 Tips For Choosing The Right Financial Advisor

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.

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

March 1, 2023Financial, Investing, Sustainable Investing2023, Accountability, As You Sow, Business, Climate, Corporate Resolutions, Corporate Responsibility, Deep Impact Investing, Diversity Stakeholder, Environment, ESG, Food Systems, Horizons Sustainable Financial Services, Kimberly Griego Kiel, Plastics, Podcast, Portfolio, Social Justice, Stranded Assets, Sustainability, Transparencydeepimpactinvesting

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:

LinkedIn: Andrew 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.

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

November 16, 2022Financial, Investing, Sustainable InvestingAnimal-Free Meat, Climate Change, Deep Impact Investing, EATV, ETF, Food Innovation, Horizons Sustainable Financial Services, Kimberly Griego Kiel, Plant-Based, Plastic, Sustainability, Vegan, VegTech™ Investdeepimpactinvesting

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.

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

December 1, 2021Financial, Investing, Sustainable InvestingClimate Change, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Horizons Sustainable Financial Services, Investment, Kimberly Griego Kiel, Plastic Pollution, Real Estate, Recycling, Supply Chains, Sustainabilitydeepimpactinvesting

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.

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

November 3, 2021Financial, Investing, Sustainable Investing, UncategorizedAgriculture, Conference, Deep Impact Investing, Economy, Environment, ESG, Finances, Food Systems, Horizons Sustainable Financial Services, Kimberly Griego Kiel, Sustainabilitydeepimpactinvesting

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

LinkedIn: 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.

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

June 2, 2021Financial, Investing, Sustainable Investing, UncategorizedDiversity, ESG, Gender Gap, Greenwashing, Horizon Sustainable Financial Services, Investment, Kimberly Griego Kiel, Portfolio Manager, Ranking, Sustainabilitydeepimpactinvesting

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.

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Episode 43: U.S. Farmers and Ranchers In Action: Creating Sustainable Food and Supply Chains – With Erin Fitzgerald

April 7, 2021Financial, Investing, Sustainable Investing, UncategorizedAgriculture, Carbon Emission, CSR, Deep Impact Investing Podcast, Development, Economic Growth, Economy, Environment, ESG, Farm, Farm Practices, Fiduciary, Finances, Financial, Financial Advisor, Financial Advisors, Financial future, financial Health Future, Financial Literacy, Financial Marketplace, Financial sustainability, Firms, Food, Gas Emissions, Horizon Sustainable Financial Services, Horizons Sustainable Financial Services, Horizons Sustainable Investing, Impact Investing, Innovation, Invest, Investing, Investment, Kimberly Griego Kiel, Law, Market, Metrics, Millennials, Mission, Normality, Philosophy, Portfolio, Ranch, retire, retirement, Returns, Risk, Social Investment, Social Justice, Strategy, Sustainability, Sustainable Investment, Team, Technology, Unemployment, Visiondeepimpactinvesting

Farmers are a lot like scientists. In fact, for farmers to be able to cultivate healthy food for people like us, they need to know a lot about the way they’re producing and growing that food.

How are farmers and ranchers working to bring us healthier meals while also enhancing sustainability efforts in agriculture?

Find out in this episode, as Erin Fitzgerald, the CEO of U.S. Farmers and Ranchers In Action (USFRA), sits down with Kimberly Griego-Kiel to continue the conversation on sustainable agriculture. Erin explains everything you need to know about USFRA and the firm’s role in creating solutions for economic and agricultural sustainability.

In this episode, you will learn:

USFRA’s vision and mission
How farmers and ranchers can reduce carbon emissions
From cow Fitbits to cover crops: Technological innovations for farms and ranches
Ways agriculture can contribute to America’s overall economic growth
And more!

Tune in today and learn how you, too, can support the sustainable agriculture movement!

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Episode 42: Investing in Climate-Smart Agriculture – With David Bennell

March 17, 2021Financial, Investing, Sustainable Investing, UncategorizedAgriculture, CSR, Deep Impact Investing Podcast, Development, Economy, Environment, ESG, Farm Practices, Fiduciary, Finances, Financial, Financial Advisor, Financial Advisors, Financial future, financial Health Future, Financial Literacy, Financial Marketplace, Financial sustainability, Firms, Gas Emissions, Horizon Sustainable Financial Services, Horizons Sustainable Financial Services, Horizons Sustainable Investing, Impact Investing, Innovation, Invest, Investing, Investment, Kimberly Griego Kiel, Law, Market, Metrics, Millennials, Normality, Philosophy, Portfolio, retire, retirement, Returns, Risk, Social Investment, Social Justice, Strategy, Sustainability, Sustainable Investment, Team, Technology, Unemploymentdeepimpactinvesting

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s (WBCSD) David Bennell focuses on creating high-quality products, services, and programs that deliver real value and set the standard for safety, sustainability, and profitability.

In this episode, join Kimberly Griego-Kiel as she sits down with David to discuss his contribution to the Transformative Investment in Climate-Smart Soil Agriculture report and to highlight what you really need to know about agricultural investment.

In this episode, you will learn:

How much private capital is in the United States’ agricultural system
Why technological and financial innovation benefit the agriculture sector
The role of greenhouse gas emissions in agricultural production
Why resilience is so important in an agricultural environment
And more!

Listen in and find out why, at the end of the day, you are always investing in agriculture!

Report: Transformative Investment in Climate-Smart Agriculture

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Episode 41: An In-Depth Look at Corporate Sustainability Reporting (CSR)

March 3, 2021Financial, Investing, Sustainable Investing, UncategorizedCSR, Deep Impact Investing Podcast, Development, Economy, Environment, ESG, Fiduciary, Finances, Financial, Financial Advisor, Financial Advisors, Financial future, financial Health Future, Financial Literacy, Financial Marketplace, Financial sustainability, Firms, Horizon Sustainable Financial Services, Horizons Sustainable Financial Services, Horizons Sustainable Investing, Impact Investing, Invest, Investing, Investment, Kimberly Griego Kiel, Law, Market, Metrics, Millennials, Normality, Philosophy, Portfolio, retire, retirement, Returns, Risk, Social Investment, Social Justice, Strategy, Sustainability, Sustainable Investment, Team, Unemploymentdeepimpactinvesting

You’ve likely heard the term CSR (Corporate Sustainability Reporting) at least once. But do you really know what this type of reporting entails and why it’s so important?

Find out in this episode as Kimberly Griego-Kiel takes you along for an in-depth look at CSR. By outlining its benefits, challenges, solutions, and guidelines, Kim explains CSR’s role within corporations and reveals how it fits into the overall idea of sustainability.

In this episode, you will learn:

The history and purpose of Corporate Sustainability Reporting (CSR)
Challenges associated with CSR
The role of CSR in a firm’s profit and ESG metrics
Kim’s take on how to achieve good quality CSR
How millennials are shaping the future of sustainability
And more!

Listen in for your crash course on the ins and outs of CSR!

Resources: Horizon Sustainable Financial Services | info@horizons

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Episode 40: ESG and Sustainable Investing Predictions for 2021

February 3, 2021Financial, Investing, Sustainable Investing, UncategorizedDeep Impact Investing Podcast, Development, Economy, Environment, ESG, Fiduciary, Finances, Financial, Financial Advisor, Financial Advisors, Financial future, financial Health Future, Financial Literacy, Financial Marketplace, Financial sustainability, Horizon Sustainable Financial Services, Horizons Sustainable Financial Services, Horizons Sustainable Investing, Impact Investing, Invest, Investing, Investment, Kimberly Griego Kiel, Law, Market, Normality, Philosophy, Portfolio, retire, retirement, Returns, Risk, Social Investment, Social Justice, Strategy, Sustainability, Sustainable Investment, Team, Unemploymentdeepimpactinvesting

What can we expect to see from sustainable investing in 2021?

Find out in this episode as Kimberly Griego-Kiel reveals her ESG and sustainable investing predictions for the year!

Join Kim as she forecasts what might lay ahead based on industry research findings. Plus, she shares the potential benefits ESG investing can bring to the government, citizens, and corporations alike.

In this episode, you will learn:

How impact investing has grown since 2018
Why more companies and individuals are choosing sustainable investing
ESG and social investing trends of 2021
Why corporation sustainability reporting could be a new requirement in upcoming years
And more!

Tune in today to learn Kim’s view on 2021’s sustainable investing industry!

Resources:

Horizon Sustainable Financial Services | info@horizonssfs.com | Facebook | 505-982-9661 | 2020 US Social Investment Forum Report

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