Don't Mess with Nature - Measuring Footprints

Measuring Footprints

11/26/20 • 26 min

Did you know that each elephant's footprint has a unique pattern which can be used to identify individuals? In the natural world, evolution tends to make animals bigger, But even the biggest creatures, like elephants, can be extraordinarily gentle with their footprint. In the financial world size matters too. Banks and financial institutions are all getting bigger. In fact, there's a fascinating statistic that the largest 1% of the world's financial houses manage over 60% of total industrial assets. Can you imagine the concentration of power that means?

So what kind of a footprint does finance have? And how can we make finance gentle with its footprint around the world? Impact investing which is focused on producing a social and environmental impact while also generating a profit has gathered a lot of attention in recent years. But how do we transition into impact investments that produce a purpose?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

Don't Mess with Nature: Billion Dollar Bonds

What could you do with a billion dollars to save nature? The answer could be a billion dollar landscape bond - a form of green bond that could protect nature while existing in the world of big finance. This podcast will take you on an expedition from bat-infested caves to palm oil plantations and how the idea for the first billion dollar bond was created.

It's a staggering statistic that 50% of the world's palm oil comes from small families with a couple of hectares, who are trying to feed and educate their children. But palm trees only live for about 25 years, and many of these families can't afford the 'valley of death' between planting new trees and being able to harvest. So how can we help reform the palm oil industry in a way which is more sustainable and doesn’t destroy forests?

By aggregating a lot of small financial opportunities and packaging them together, you can make a much bigger one. And that's what you offer to the market. The benefits? Better palm oil plantations, which are not just monocultures, but provide for much more biodiversity. Wouldn't you prefer to have projects like that in your pension plan?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Next Episode

Don't Mess with Nature: Banking on Nature

Banking on Nature is a tale of two banks, in fact a tale of two governors of the Bank of England, the first and the last. The story starts with the first governor of the bank of England, a man called William Paterson and his disastrous Darien colony in Panama, the remains of which were uncovered as part of a scientific and archaeological exploration I joined as a young explorer. William Paterson didn't bank on nature, and it cost him dearly. But the last governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney did. His global Task Force for Climate-related Financial Disclosures together with Michael Bloomberg as chairman launched in December 2015 as a fantastic Christmas present to the planet and made it vital for the finance sector to report on the climate liabilities in their portfolios. By putting climate disclosure as a requirement, voluntary for the finance sector, it forced people to start thinking about climate change seriously. Because unless we change the movement of money, we're going to continue to finance ourselves into extinction. And in this podcast, you'll hear about how a new task force, the Task Force for Nature-related Financial Disclosure began and gathered momentum and will, we believe, be another vital gift for our planet.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.