A New Golden Age for Environmental Impact Investing?

Team News

This month we welcomed a new Impact Engine Board Member, Jim Casselberry!

Jim has over 30 years of experience in investing, impact investing, investment management and investment consulting. He currently serves as the Co-Founder and CEO of Known Holdings. Read more about Jim on our website. We're excited to have him on board.

Sector Spotlight

As part of a new series we'll be periodically highlighting each individual sector we invest in.

First up, we'll dive deep into environmental impact investing with our in-house expert, IE Vice President Chris Wu.

"It’s a really exciting time to be investing in the environmental sustainability space," Chris says. "There’s a confluence of different factors all converging to drive strong tailwinds."

Keep reading to learn what we look for when we're evaluating potential new environmental investments, plus the key reasons why Chris is especially hopeful right now.

Portfolio news

Carbon Direct Vice Chair Nili Gilbert spoke on a panel with Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker about decarbonization at the Clinton Global Initiative summit. Gilbert highlighted the growing need to invest in resilient multi-purpose infrastructure, such as rebuilding Caribbean schools that can also double as hurricane shelters. “When we’re doing one thing,” she said, “we need to think, ‘How can I do five things with this one act?” Watch a video of her remarks about the opportunity to build an inclusive green future.

Footprint co-founder and CEO Troy Swope was recently featured on the Impact Boom Podcast. He talked about his engineering roots at Intel and why he's now driven to replace plastic with an environmentally sustainable packaging solution. "The real opportunity exists because plastic is a disaster from a climate change and CO2 emissions perspectives. When you start thinking about harvesting oil and natural gas, it is hard from a lifecycle analysis to justify its production with whales washing up on shore. In human health impacts, it's hard to measure those as well, but even with very measurable criterion like CO2 emissions and its influence on climate change, there are abundant opportunities to do good. You're going to see a huge amount of innovation around developing technologies and processes to clean up and eliminate plastic."

Measurabl, the ESG real estate data platform, launched a new ESG Advisory Service to help customers step beyond analyzing data and start setting environmental improvement targets and plan for climate risks. “Investment grade data is the prerequisite to any successful ESG strategy,” said Matt Ellis, Measurabl founder and CEO. “But leveraging that data to navigate the evolving regulatory landscape and outcompete is what sets ESG leaders apart, and that’s where our Advisory Services can make a big difference."

Did you know up to 30% of all all food produced is wasted? That problem presents a tremendous opportunity for smart solutions. We've been investing in this space for years now and we're pleased to see that the issue of food waste has gotten more and more recognition lately. This month, four of our portfolio companies were listed as Crunchbase's top food waste prevention startups: Afresh, Matsmart - Motatos, Full Harvest, Therma°.


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Disclaimer: These materials are intended for informational purposes only and may not be relied upon for making any investment decision. Information provided in these materials is believed to be accurate; however, Impact Engine makes no guarantees as to the accuracy of information provided. This document does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy any securities in any fund, market sector, strategy or any other product managed by Impact Engine and may not be relied upon in connection with any offer or sale of securities. Impact Engine has not compensated any party for and is not aware of any material conflicts of interest arising from any ranking, endorsement, or testimonial referenced in these materials. Read full terms.