The Sustainable Finance Podcast Paul Ellis

Today’s podcast guest loves to speak with investors and asset managers interested in the sustainable food space. Shila Wattamwar, Founder and CEO of Radiant Global Advisory, is an adviser to companies that are optimizing logistics, reducing supply chain costs and emissions and fostering community engagement as sustainability goals they expect will produce greater ROI and profitability and help them become preferred companies to work for in their industry. She is a Fast Company Impact Council member and a contributing writer on sustainability themes. In a recent article Shila highlighted her framework that maps activities to positive actions, rather than just the issues we face, with the intention of making daily sustainability-focused action more tangible for consumers as well as investors and asset managers.

Tee Ganbold is Co-Founder and CEO at Improvability AI, the Generative AI improvement engine for sustainability. She was Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer of Clear AI, optimizing supply chains for sustainability utilizing knowledge graphs. Improvability AI enables companies to enhance their sustainability focus and increase profits through the power of AI automation - intuitive AI agents and applications that automate tasks and workflows to lower costs in the business model and supply chains. Clients use the Improvability AI RAG Platform to automate reporting, insights and research based on their private data and documents. They also work with Improvability AI to create their own platforms for clients or teams.

Sustainable Impact investing is at an inflection point in 2024, so where do Radhika Shroff and her Nuveen Private Equity team see value in this type of investing? Their investment thesis is rooted in addressing two critical and inextricably linked problems — inequality and climate change. They believe these problems create attractive impact investment opportunities outside of traditional developed markets that offer investors stability, competitive returns and liquidity for the right asset manager. Climate change knows no boundaries and will impact communities with varying levels of resilience. Nuveen also believes that by targeting the emerging low-income consumer segment, and providing that consumer with goods and services that mitigate carbon emissions and build resilience, they will select companies best positioned to grow and lead in the decades to come.

Many claim that ESG is dead. Our SFP guest today said that “ESG is broken” at NYC Climate Week last year. But ESG teams need ESG software in the same way that finance teams need finance software. Makes sense, but where should businesses start on this software adoption journey? Today followers of the SFP are going to hear from Marjella Lecourt-Alma, CEO and Co-Founder of Datamaran about “Smart ESG”, how it differs from other approaches and what are the benefits for businesses of different sizes and industries? Datamaran is the only software analytics firm in the world that can monitor external risks and opportunities (incl ESG) in real-time. The development of their patented technology is expert-led and fully transparent. Marjella and the Datamaran team believe that companies who care about their success - in an ever evolving world - incorporate material ESG risks and opportunities from the top down.

Amina Zakhnouf is an Investment Officer at the Fund for Innovation in Development (FID), which is hosted by the French government to fight poverty and promote sustainable economic growth. Zakhnouf supported the creation of the Hellenic Development Bank in Greece and backed the Tunisian government’s effort to create a favorable investment ecosystem for start-ups. Amina is also a Co-Founder of “I’m Committed to Africa” (JMA), a public policy incubator launched in 2020 with the mission of giving youth a seat at the table when it comes to Euro-African policy making.

As companies and investors continue to navigate the 3D-reset themes of decarbonization, deglobalization and demographic change, Schroders believes that it is important to consider the practical investment implications of these broad trends. In 2024, Schroders sees investors transitioning from simply thinking of ESG risk management and integration to an increasing focus on sustainable opportunities and themes to harness for value creation. But Sustainability need not be simply a growth-chasing exercise! In fact, Schroders believes that the asset managers who succeed in 2024 will be those that can deliver active management alpha around both valuation and sustainability objectives for clients. As a result, Roberta Barr and Alex Monk are focused on balancing both value and sustainability considerations in their portfolios. On one hand, they agree that “in the long run, the price you pay for something really matters,” and at the same time they believe that it is important to invest in sustainability leaders, companies that can deliver positive societal benefit and are best-in-class versus peers, and will therefore be better placed to navigate change in the future.