SRI360 | Sustainable & Responsible Investing, Impact Investing, ESG, Socially Responsible Investing

Scott Arnell
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SRI360 explores how professional and institutional investors use impact investing and sustainable finance to shape real-world outcomes. Each episode features an in-depth conversation with a leading investor in public or private equities, public or private debt, venture capital, or real assets. We focus on the mechanics of investing: how strategies are designed, how capital is allocated, how impact is achieved and measured, and where incentives succeed, or fail, within asset-owner systems. If you want clear, honest insight into the future of sustainable & responsible investing from the people shaping it, this show is your competitive edge.    Learn more at SRI360.com.

  1. 19H AGO

    From Mud Huts to Brick Houses: Venture Capital & Climate Resilience in Africa

    Climate finance conversations often focus on mitigation. However, the question Tamer El-Raghy raises is more structural: what if one of the most compelling climate investment opportunities lies in helping smallholder farmers adapt? In this episode of Sustainable & Responsible Investing 360, I’m joined by Tamer El-Raghy, Managing Director of the Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund (ARAF). Tamer leads one of the first investment vehicles dedicated to climate adaptation in agriculture across Africa, backing early-stage companies that help farmers improve productivity, stability, and resilience in the face of changing climate conditions. We discuss why agriculture remains chronically undercapitalised despite its central role in global food systems, and how blended finance structures, including first-loss capital from development institutions, can unlock mainstream investment into frontier markets. Tamer also explains why successful agribusiness models often function as platform businesses, bundling financing, inputs, technical support, and market access to solve multiple farmer constraints at once. What stayed with me is the simplicity of his impact lens: when farmers move from mud huts to brick houses, it signals something deeper than income growth. It reflects stability, dignity, and the foundations of long-term resilience. Featured Guest  Tamer El-Raghy, Managing Director of the Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund (ARAF) Episode Resources: Tamer El-Raghy on LinkedInAcumen Resilient Agricultural Fund Website.Connect with SRI360°:  Sign up for the free weekly Email Update Visit the SRI360° PODCAST Visit the SRI360° WEBSITE Follow SRI360° on XFollow SRI360° on FACEBOOK

    1h 27m

  2. 6D AGO

    Alpha Strategy: Eliminating Bias to Unlock 4X Venture Outperformance

    In venture capital, credibility is often framed around access, networks, and pattern recognition. This episode challenges that foundation by asking a harder question: what if the industry’s biggest blind spot is also its most persistent source of mispriced opportunity? My guest this week is Sharon Vosmek, CEO and Managing Partner of Astia. With more than two decades of early-stage investing experience, Sharon has built one of the most structured bias-mitigation processes in venture through Astia’s Expert SIFT methodology. A documented and disciplined system designed to eliminate individual, network, and process bias from investment decisions. Sharon explains why the gender gap in venture funding is better understood as a market inefficiency, and how removing warm-introduction gatekeeping meaningfully expands high-quality deal flow.  We also discuss:   How to recognize and eliminate pattern-matching bias in investment decisionsThe alpha thesis: Why inclusive teams generate 4x average returnsHow to reframe impact investing in the U.S. market by emphasizing values-based returnsThis conversation examines inclusive investing not as concessionary capital, but as a rigorous venture discipline designed to capture overlooked alpha. Featured Guest Sharon Vosmek, CEO & Managing Partner, Astia Episode Resources: Sharon Vosmek on LinkedInAstia WebsiteAstia on InstagramAstia 25th Anniversary White PaperPrevious SRI360 episode with Sharon Vosmek: Connect with SRI360°:  Sign up for the free weekly Email Update Visit the SRI360° PODCAST Visit the SRI360° WEBSITE Follow SRI360° on XFollow SRI360° on FACEBOOK

    1h 43m

  3. FEB 26

    Scaling Impact & Alpha: Inside T. Rowe Price’s Myth-Busting Impact Fixed-Income Strategies

    In fixed income, credibility is tested differently, and real world metrics like liquidity, scale, and benchmark scrutiny leave little room for storytelling. This episode examines how impact strategies can operate inside mainstream credit markets without weakening financial discipline or diluting measurable outcomes. My guest this week is, Matt Lawton, Matt is the Head of Impact Fixed Income at T. Rowe Price, where he leads global credit and emerging market blue bond strategies. With more than 15 years across credit research and portfolio management, Matt has helped build one of the industry’s most structured approaches to impact investing in public markets. Matt explains how narrowing a broad benchmark to impact-aligned issuers creates focus without conceding returns, and why additionality must be identified ex ante, and not assumed. Tune in to learn more about: Why a 60/40 primary-secondary split protects credibility How the five dimensions of the impact framework for underwriting dual objectives What a four-pillar ESG bond test reveals about greenwashing Why impact must deliver market-rate returns by 2030This conversation is impact investing applied with credit discipline, measurement rigour, and institutional accountability. Featured guest: Matt Lawton, Head of Impact Fixed Income at T. Rowe Price Additional Resources: Matt Lawton LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/mattmlawton/ T. Rowe Price Website: https://www.troweprice.com/ T. Rowe Price ESG: https://www.troweprice.com/en/uk/about-us/esg/esg-investing T. Rowe Price on https://linkedin.com/company/t--rowe-price/  Connect with SRI360°: Sign up for the free weekly email update Visit the SRI360° PODCAST: Visit the SRI360° WEBSITE Follow SRI360° on X Follow SRI360° on FACEBOOK

    1h 39m

  4. FEB 17

    Beyond the 2/20 Model: Disrupting VC & 25% IRR from Climate Adaptation in Southeast Asia

    Most climate investment still flows toward mitigation, technologies designed to reduce future emissions. Far less capital is directed toward climate adaptation, despite the fact that many regions are already living with the physical, economic, and social consequences of climate change. This imbalance is especially visible in emerging markets, where climate risk, rapid economic growth, and limited institutional infrastructure collide. In this episode of SRI360, I’m joined by Alina Truhina, Founder and Managing Partner of Radical Fund and Utopia Capital Management.  Alina has spent her career building and backing early-stage companies across Southeast Asia and Africa, with a focus on climate adaptation, venture capital, and how businesses actually get built in emerging markets. We discuss why traditional venture capital models often fail in emerging markets, why climate adaptation is harder to measure (but no less urgent) than mitigation, and why supporting founders in these environments requires far more than simply writing a check. Tune in to learn more about: Why climate adaptation remains underfunded compared to mitigationHow measurement and incentives shape where climate capital flowsWhy traditional venture capital models struggle in emerging marketsWhat founders in climate-exposed regions need beyond just fundingHow capital design influences risk, resilience, and long-term outcomesFeatured guest:  Alina Truhina, CEO and Managing Partner of The Radical Fund and a Partner at the multi-regional investment platform Utopia Capital Management Listen Next:  Conversation with Nick Hurd: How Paying for Outcomes Unlocks Impact Investing ReturnsDiscover More from SRI360°: Explore all episodes of the SRI360° Podcast Sign up for the free weekly email update

    1h 24m

  5. FEB 5

    Regenerative Finance and Biodiversity: The Risk Investors Keep Mispricing

    What happens when sustainability strategies fail to address real climate risk and long-term investment outcomes? In this episode of SRI360, I am speaking with Laura Ortiz Montemayor about impact investing, climate risk, and regenerative finance, and why sustainability alone may no longer be enough for investors focused on long-term value creation. Drawing from Laura’s experience in traditional finance and her work building regenerative investment strategies in Latin America, the conversation explores how capital allocation shapes systems, and why rethinking how capital is deployed matters as much as where it flows. The conversation is especially relevant for investors navigating climate finance, nature risk, and sustainable investing in emerging markets. We talk about: the difference between sustainability and regeneration in impact investingwhy changing what we invest in isn’t enough without changing how capital is deployedhow capital shapes systems, and risk, over timewhat regenerative finance looks like for investors focused on long-term outcomesFeatured guest:  Laura Ortiz Montemayor, founder of SVX México and Managing Partner of Regenera VenturesListen Next:  Conversation with Helen Avery, Director of Nature Programs at the Green Finance Institute (GFI)Discover More from SRI360°: Explore all episodes of the SRI360° Podcast Sign up for the free weekly email update

    2h 18m

  6. JAN 21

    Alpha From Inertia: How Paying for Outcomes Unlocks Impact Investing Returns

    The biggest risk investors face right now isn’t just climate change, geopolitics, or emerging-market volatility. The real threat in impact investing is inertia. Capital stays in familiar places because big asset owners can get satisfactory returns elsewhere. So, unless incentives and information change, inertia wins. This episode is about why social investment keeps getting stuck, even when good people across government, finance, and communities are trying to do the right thing – and what actually has to change for money to start moving. It focuses on where incentives misfire and how to scale impact investing and social investment beyond pilot projects.  I’m joined by Nick Hurd, former UK minister and now Chair of GSG Impact. Nick has worked across government, finance, and civil society. He helped build the UK’s social investment market, pioneered early social impact bonds, and later stepped away from politics after deciding markets offered more leverage than ministries. We talk about: how outcome-based finance works in practicehow social investment moves risk off taxpayerswhere social impact bonds work (and where not)why climate finance must account for communities, not just emissionsFeatured guest:  Nick Hurd, Chair & Senior Adviser at GSG Impact Listen Next:  Conversation with Sir Ronald Cohen Conversation with Nick O’DonohoeDiscover More from SRI360°: Explore all episodes of the SRI360° Podcast Sign up for the free weekly email update

    1h 31m

  7. JAN 15

    How AgTech Venture Capital Harvests Alpha and Impact in Latin America

    Agrifood and AgTech investing in Latin America is still widely misunderstood. That gap between perception and reality is creating real opportunity for patient, specialized investors who understand agriculture as a long-term operating business, not a short-cycle investment theme. Volatility here is often mistaken for weakness. But as this conversation makes clear, agribusiness has kept growing through recessions, pandemics, and political transitions. In many cases, it’s been one of the most resilient parts of the economy. I’m joined by Francisco Jardim, General Partner at SP Ventures. He’s spent nearly two decades building one of the region’s earliest agrifood venture capital platforms, investing across agriculture innovation, climate resilience, and food security in Brazil and across Latin America. We talk about: Why tropical agriculture operates differently from temperate agriculture in US and European systemsHow climate and AgTech investors often misprice Latin AmericaWhy Brazilian agribusiness continued growing through macro shocksHow to scale sustainable agriculture without sacrificing productivity or food securityTune in to hear why Latin American agrifood and climate tech may be one of the most compelling risk-return opportunities of this generation. Featured guest:  Francisco "Chico" Jardim, General Partner at SP Ventures, one of the earliest venture firms built inside Brazilian agricultureListen Next:  Conversation with Daniel Izzo, CEO of Vox Capital, Brazil’s first impact investing firmDiscover More from SRI360°: Explore all episodes of the SRI360° Podcast Sign up for the free weekly email update

    2h 5m

  8. JAN 6

    How Catalytic Capital Turns High-Risk Assets Into Pension-Grade Investments

    Catalytic capital is often described as concessional capital, sometimes accepting lower returns. But this framing overlooks what matters most. In practice, catalytic capital steps in first, absorbs the risk others can’t, and makes institutional capital comfortable enough to follow. If you’re involved in capital allocation, this matters because catalytic capital isn’t about charity. It’s about structuring risk so institutions can invest in assets they normally couldn’t because of regulatory and rating rules. This episode focuses on how catalytic capital functions inside impact investing portfolios under real regulatory and balance-sheet constraints.  It revisits key points from my earlier conversation with Yasemin Saltuk Lamy who built and scaled the Catalyst Portfolio at British International Investment from roughly £300 million to about £1.6 billion. Tune in to learn: Why who goes first matters more than how much capital goes inWhen catalytic capital actually crowds in institutional investorsHow credit enhancement changes regulatory eligibilityHow impact measurement shapes capital allocation decisionsWhy impact trades off with liquidity, not financial returnsFeatured guest:  Yasemin Saltuk Lamy, Head of Investment Strategy for the Institutional Retirement division of Legal & General (L&G) and former Deputy CIO and Head of Asset Allocation and Capital Solutions at British International Investment (BII)Listen Next:  Full conversation with Yasemin Saltuk LamyDiscover More from SRI360°: Explore all episodes of the SRI360° Podcast Sign up for the free weekly email update

    43 min
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SRI360 explores how professional and institutional investors use impact investing and sustainable finance to shape real-world outcomes. Each episode features an in-depth conversation with a leading investor in public or private equities, public or private debt, venture capital, or real assets. We focus on the mechanics of investing: how strategies are designed, how capital is allocated, how impact is achieved and measured, and where incentives succeed, or fail, within asset-owner systems. If you want clear, honest insight into the future of sustainable & responsible investing from the people shaping it, this show is your competitive edge.    Learn more at SRI360.com.

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