The GoodStock Tapes Podcast

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The financial advice profession is changing. Clients are asking deeper questions about purpose, impact and the role money plays in building a better world. Yet many advisers still feel caught between traditional investment thinking and the growing demand for something more meaningful. The GoodStock Tapes is where those conversations happen. Hosted by leading voices from the GoodStock community, this podcast explores the intersection of financial planning, investing, ethics and real-world impact. Through candid interviews and thought-provoking discussions, we speak with financial planners, fund managers, entrepreneurs, academics and change-makers who are reshaping how capital can be used for good. Each episode goes beyond the surface to explore questions such as: What does good investing actually look like in practice? Can portfolios deliver strong returns and positive impact? How should financial planners talk to clients about sustainability and ethics? Where is ESG getting it wrong – and where is it quietly working? How can advisers build businesses that align profit with purpose? These aren't polished marketing soundbites. They are honest, thoughtful conversations about the future of finance and the role advisers can play in shaping it. Expect practical insights, challenging perspectives and the occasional uncomfortable truth.

  1. 1d ago

    The Future of Paraplanning, AI and Sustainable Finance

    Sustainability is often treated as an additional question at the end of the financial planning process: a box to tick once risk, objectives and performance have already been discussed. But what would change if a client's values were considered from the beginning? In this episode of The GoodStock Tapes, we are joined by Scott Daniels, co-founder and director of Plus Group, a specialist provider of paraplanning, adviser support and technology-enabled services to UK financial planning businesses. Scott argues that the profession must move beyond jargon-heavy labels and start asking better questions. When a client says they want their money to "do some good", they may be expressing a desire to avoid particular industries, support positive outcomes or simply feel more comfortable with the way their capital is being used. The adviser's task is to understand that meaning, test it against the client's wider objectives and create a clear evidence trail. The conversation examines how specialist paraplanning can help translate values into structured research, suitable recommendations and personalised documentation. Scott explains why good records should show what the client said, how the adviser interpreted it, what research followed and why the eventual recommendation reflected the client's preferences. We also consider whether environmental and climate-related risks should become a more formal part of long-term financial planning. From coastal property and insurance exposure to the idea of a "climate emergency fund", the discussion asks whether traditional approaches to risk remain sufficient for plans spanning several decades. Finally, Scott shares a practical view of artificial intelligence. AI can capture richer meeting information, reduce administrative pressure and surface useful details, but it cannot replace the human ability to interpret nuance, ask follow-up questions and exercise professional judgement. This is a thoughtful conversation about personalisation, Consumer Duty, sustainable investing and the infrastructure advisers need to have more meaningful conversations. Follow The GoodStock Tapes and share this episode with someone who believes finance can be a force for good.

  2. Sep 3

    Can communities own the energy transition?

    Who should own the infrastructure powering the transition to net zero, and how early should communities be invited into the conversation? In this episode of The GoodStock Tapes, we speak with Ciara Shannon, Founding Director of the Green Finance Community Hub and Green Finance Lead at the North West Net Zero Hub. Ciara has spent much of her career at the intersection of sustainability, impact investment and green finance, and is now helping develop Project Collette, an ambitious proposed community-led offshore wind project off the coast of Cumbria. At approximately 1.2GW, Project Collette is conceived on a very different scale from most traditional community energy schemes. But the most interesting part of the proposition is not simply the turbines. It is the financial architecture behind them. Ciara explains the project's Community Integrated Investment Model, designed to give local people meaningful participation from an unusually early stage while still enabling the institutional investment required for infrastructure of this size. We explore community benefit societies, community shares, governance, the idea of a restricted golden share, and how community interests might coexist with conventional project finance. The conversation also moves beyond Project Collette itself. Why are so many sustainability professionals occupied with frameworks and measurement while potentially investable projects struggle to get through early-stage development? Why is feasibility capital so difficult to secure? And has sustainability become too focused on avoiding risk rather than enabling experimentation? Ciara argues that there is plenty of capital looking for credible opportunities. The challenge is creating more projects that are genuinely investment ready. For financial planners, investors and anyone interested in sustainable finance, this is a conversation about more than offshore wind. It asks a bigger question, "How might capital be structured so that the communities affected by investment become participants in it too?" If you believe finance can be a force for good, this episode offers plenty to think about.

  3. Sep 3

    Does Impact Investing Actually Create Impact?

    What does it really mean to invest for impact? In this episode of The GoodStock Tapes, Dr Alan Whittle joins Clem for a deliberately provocative hot take: much of what is currently described as impact investing for retail clients may not actually be creating meaningful additional impact. Alan is the founder and director of Unburdened Solutions, a Chartered Financial Planner, Fellow of the Personal Finance Society and researcher specialising in sustainable finance, ethics and impact investing. His PhD explored how framing influences decision-making in advised impact investing. Together, Alan and Clem unpack an important distinction between aligning investments with a client's values and actually directing capital towards activity that creates measurable change. They explore the role of listed equities, stewardship and shareholder advocacy; the limitations of investment labels; and why asset managers may need to involve end investors much more seriously in their theories of change. The conversation then moves into the less familiar world of private and community-based impact investment — where capital can potentially finance tangible projects, businesses and social outcomes, but where due diligence, liquidity and investment risk can be considerably more challenging. For financial planners, that creates a dilemma. Clients may have surplus capital they genuinely want to use for good, yet the regulatory and technological infrastructure of mainstream advice often makes these investments difficult to research, recommend or even hold. Alan introduces a useful idea for navigating this tension: a client's "capacity for impact", considering how much capital someone could commit to genuinely transformative investments while remaining financially secure if that capital were lost or became illiquid. This is ultimately a conversation about curiosity, honesty and the responsibility of advisers to understand a rapidly evolving investment landscape. If we want finance to become a more powerful force for good, perhaps we need to start by being clearer about what our money is, and isn't changing.

  4. Aug 8

    Is Affordable Lending the Impact Investment We're Overlooking?

    What if millions of people excluded from mainstream credit are not actually "bad borrowers", but people being assessed by the wrong system? In this episode, Salad CEO Craig Pennington and Ethex's Jeroen Huysinga explore how Open Banking is changing affordability decisions and ask whether funding fairer credit could represent a genuine social impact investment opportunity. Around 20 million adults in the UK are underserved or excluded by mainstream credit, but does that necessarily mean they cannot afford to borrow, or does it expose a weakness in the way our financial system decides who is creditworthy?` Craig explains why conventional credit scores can provide an incomplete picture of someone's financial circumstances, particularly for renters, people with thin credit histories and those whose financial position has changed. Salad takes a different approach, using permissioned Open Banking information to assess current income, expenditure and affordability rather than relying primarily on a historic credit score. The conversation also explores an important part of responsible lending that is easily overlooked: knowing when not to lend. Craig discusses Salad's approach to identifying financial vulnerability, signposting applicants towards organisations such as StepChange and providing access to other forms of support. Jeroen explains why Ethex sees affordable finance as a form of direct social impact investment, how it assesses potential investees and why relatively small amounts of junior capital can help organisations such as Salad unlock considerably larger pools of lending finance. For financial planners and advisers, however, impact cannot be considered separately from investment risk. The conversation examines illiquidity, the absence of FSCS protection, uncertain returns and the role these investments might, or might not, play within a suitably diversified portfolio. Ultimately, this is a conversation about what responsible capital looks like from both sides of the balance sheet, who gets access to money, who provides it and what happens when we design finance around people rather than scores. If you believe capital can play a constructive role in tackling financial exclusion, this is an episode worth hearing. If you enjoyed this conversation, follow The GoodStock Tapes wherever you listen to podcasts and leave us a review. And if this episode made you think differently about credit, financial inclusion or the way capital is allocated, share it with a financial planner, adviser or investor who believes finance can be a force for good.

  5. Jun 23

    Finding Common Ground in Divided Times

    Politics can often feel tribal, exhausting and designed to keep people at a distance. But what if the answer is not to shout louder, but to listen better? In this episode of The Good Stock Tapes, we speak with Anthea Simmons — campaigner, citizen journalist, co-founder of the South Devon Primary, founder of Common Ground, and editor-in-chief of West Country Voices — about what she has learned from talking to people face to face in communities across Devon. Her work starts from a simple but powerful belief: there is more that unites us than divides us. Anthea shares how Common Ground uses a straightforward sticker-board format to invite non-confrontational conversations about democracy, misinformation, political identity and the rise of the far right. She reflects on why so many people are still hungry for healthier democratic engagement, even when they feel disappointed by mainstream politics, and why gentle correction can be more powerful than point-scoring.

  6. Jun 11

    Can Community Investment Really Rebuild Local Britain?

    What does it look like when investment stops chasing abstraction and starts saving pubs, shops, football clubs and community spaces? In this conversation, Alain Demontoux and Jeroen Huysinga explore how capital can be used more deliberately, not just to generate returns, but to strengthen local economies and keep vital assets in community hands. In this episode of The GoodStock Tapes, we explore a simple but important question: can investing become a more practical tool for community renewal? Joining the conversation are Alain Demontoux, Operations and FCA Compliance Manager at Co-operative and Community Finance / ICOF Community Capital, and Jeroen Huysinga, a senior investment leader at Ethex working in positive and impact-led investment. Together, they unpack the thinking behind the ICC Share Offer 2026 and what it tells us about the future of ethical investing, financial planning and purpose-driven capital. At the centre of the discussion is a model of finance that feels refreshingly tangible. Rather than treating impact as a marketing layer, ICC has spent decades providing loan finance to co-operatives and community businesses across the UK. The organisation says it has invested more than £4.4 million through 100 loans to 85 organisations, supporting community assets, social enterprise and neighbourhood regeneration. Its current raise aims to expand that revolving pool of capital and widen access through the Ethex platform. If you enjoyed this conversation, please follow The GoodStock Tapes, leave a review, and share the episode with someone who believes finance can be a force for good. The more people we bring into these conversations, the more likely it is that capital will be used with greater imagination, responsibility and purpose.

  7. Jun 1

    How One Grandmother is Helping Firms Work More Sustainably, One Step at a Time

    What if making a difference didn't begin with a grand strategy, but with one simple decision to act? In this episode, Pam Moore shares how concern for her granddaughter's generation led her to launch Plant Protect and help businesses take practical first steps into sustainability. Sustainability can often feel like something reserved for large corporates, specialist consultants or businesses with time, money and teams to spare. But what if the real starting point is much simpler than that? In this episode of The GoodStock Tapes, we speak with Pamela Moore, founder of Plant Protect, about what it means to begin, not perfectly, but practically. Motivated by a desire to do something meaningful for her granddaughter's generation, Pam stepped into the sustainability space with a simple conviction: businesses do not need to have all the answers before they take action. That belief now sits at the heart of Plant Protect, which helps small and medium-sized businesses take manageable, credible first steps towards sustainability. The company describes its role as a starting point for responsible growth, combining environmental participation with practical structure so that firms can move from good intentions to documented action. This conversation explores what happens when ordinary people decide that waiting is no longer enough. Pam reflects on why sustainability should feel achievable rather than overwhelming, why steady progress matters more than perfection, and why businesses of every size have a role to play in shaping the future. We also explore a deeper question running through the episode: what changes when people stop assuming that sustainability belongs to someone else? For financial planners, advisers and business leaders alike, this is a conversation about responsibility, agency and the power of taking the first meaningful step. If you have ever thought, "I care about this, but I'm not sure where to begin," this episode is for you.

  8. May 22

    Can Clean Cooking Change Lives at Scale? Inside EcoSafi's Impact Model

    What does impact investing look like when it shows up in an ordinary kitchen? In this episode, Jordyan Woodley explains how EcoSafi is helping families in Kenya move away from charcoal towards cleaner, cheaper cooking, while also opening up a more tangible and accountable model of climate finance. Millions of households across Kenya still rely on charcoal and wood for everyday cooking, with consequences that reach far beyond the kitchen: rising household costs, indoor air pollution, pressure on forests, and a disproportionate burden on women and children. So what happens when a cleaner alternative is not only lower-emission, but also more affordable and more practical for the people using it? Jordyan Woodley, CEO and co-founder of EcoSafi, a clean cooking company operating in East Africa. EcoSafi's model combines biomass gasification cookstoves with fuel pellets made from agricultural waste, creating an alternative to charcoal that aims to reduce smoke exposure, cut costs for households, and avoid further deforestation. The company has also attracted attention for issuing Africa's first Gold Standard metered clean-cooking carbon credits, offering a more data-led approach to measuring real-world impact. Jordyan explains why clean cooking should not be treated as a niche development issue, but as a serious conversation about health, dignity, affordability and how capital can solve practical problems in people's daily lives. We explore the human reality behind fuel poverty, the systems thinking required to replace entrenched cooking habits, and why climate finance only matters if it produces tangible improvements for families on the ground. The conversation also examines one of the most contested areas in sustainable finance: carbon credits. At a time when parts of the market are facing scrutiny, EcoSafi is making the case that transparent, metered, high-integrity carbon finance can help subsidise access to cleaner cooking for lower-income households while creating measurable environmental benefit. That question feels especially timely in the wake of wider disruption in Kenya's clean cooking market. If you care about ethical investing, impact projects, or the future of finance as a tool for real-world change, this episode is a reminder that some of the most important capital allocation decisions in the world do not happen on trading floors. They happen in homes, communities and everyday systems that shape how people live. Follow The GoodStock Tapes and share this episode with someone who believes finance should be judged by the lives it improves. For more details on how you can support Ecosafi, head to EnergiseAfrica.com

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About

The financial advice profession is changing. Clients are asking deeper questions about purpose, impact and the role money plays in building a better world. Yet many advisers still feel caught between traditional investment thinking and the growing demand for something more meaningful. The GoodStock Tapes is where those conversations happen. Hosted by leading voices from the GoodStock community, this podcast explores the intersection of financial planning, investing, ethics and real-world impact. Through candid interviews and thought-provoking discussions, we speak with financial planners, fund managers, entrepreneurs, academics and change-makers who are reshaping how capital can be used for good. Each episode goes beyond the surface to explore questions such as: What does good investing actually look like in practice? Can portfolios deliver strong returns and positive impact? How should financial planners talk to clients about sustainability and ethics? Where is ESG getting it wrong – and where is it quietly working? How can advisers build businesses that align profit with purpose? These aren't polished marketing soundbites. They are honest, thoughtful conversations about the future of finance and the role advisers can play in shaping it. Expect practical insights, challenging perspectives and the occasional uncomfortable truth.

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