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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 

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

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

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 

Forestry is often treated as just timber production. But in this 2-in-1 compilation about sustainable forestry, you’ll hear a different way of thinking. One that looks beyond timber to carbon, biodiversity, water, and resilience. I revisit key moments from two earlier episodes that look at sustainable forestry as a serious investment strategy and a practical example of nature-based investing. They show how forests can deliver competitive returns, hedge inflation, and reduce portfolio risk while addressing climate and biodiversity pressures. In one conversation, Bettina von Hagen talks about how better forest management can make forests more valuable over time. In the other, Charlotte Kaiser explains why climate and biodiversity loss are now showing up as real risks for investors. Together, they show how decisions made on the ground connect with institutional capital in the real world. You’ll hear: How sustainable forestry creates value beyond timber productionWhy forests function as an inflation hedge and portfolio stabilizerHow climate-smart forestry improves resilience without sacrificing returnsHow carbon markets and conservation expand financial optionalityHow biodiversity, carbon, and community outcomes are measuredIf you want solid information before deciding whether forests belong in a portfolio, this episode is a good place to start. Featured guests: Bettina von Hagen, Managing Director & CEO at EFM Investments & AdvisoryCharlotte Kaiser, Head of Impact Finance at BTG Pactual’s Timberland Investment Group (TIG)Listen Next:  Full conversation with Bettina von Hagen Full conversation with Charlotte Kaiser Discover More from SRI360°: Explore all episodes of the SRI360° PodcastSign up for the free weekly email update

The apparel industry is a $3 trillion market. But a massive share of what it produces goes straight to waste. That combination points to mispriced inputs and broken systems. And to real opportunities for circular economy solutions that work on both the business side and the environmental side. In this end-of-year gift to listeners, I'm revisiting a conversation that shows where to look for investment opportunity: at overproduction, reverse logistics that don’t work, and at a system where brands often find it cheaper to write off returned product than resell it. These are highlights from an earlier conversation with Karla Mora, founder of Alante Capital, an early-stage venture fund focused on circular economy solutions and sustainable supply chains across the apparel industry. Karla works directly with brands, manufacturers, and material innovators to understand where waste is created and where capital can change outcomes. You’ll hear: How overproduction creates immediate waste in apparelWhere circular economy investments can scale todayHow venture returns and impact align in this sectorListen in. — Featured guest:  Karla Mora: Founder and Managing Partner at Alante Capital, an early-stage venture fund backing scalable circular economy solutions in apparel and consumer supply chains— Listen Next:  Full conversation with Karla Mora— Discover More from SRI360°: Explore all episodes of the SRI360° Podcast Sign up for the free weekly email update

Green bonds sound simple until you try to separate the real ones from the 50 shades of green flooding today’s market. This episode offers an insider framework to distinguish credible green bonds from greenwashing, understand what real additionality looks like in fixed income, and make more confident capital-allocation decisions in a label-driven market. It revisits early conversations with Marilyn Ceci and Romina Reversi, leaders who helped build the green bond market before sustainable finance went mainstream. Both worked inside JP Morgan as issuers, investors, and regulators were still defining standards, reporting, and impact measurement. You’ll hear how green bonds evolved from a niche experiment into a scalable fixed-income market, and what that evolution reveals about transparency, liquidity, and investor trust today. This episode explores: Why green bonds became a strategic communication tool for issuersHow disclosure itself was treated as impactWhat standards actually enabled scale and liquidityWhy nuclear energy re-entered the green bond conversation— Featured guests: Marilyn Ceci: Managing Director and Senior Advisor to the Center for Carbon Transition at JP Morgan and co-author of the Green Bond PrinciplesRomina Reversi: former founding member of JP Morgan’s ESG DCM team, now Managing Director and Head of Sustainable Investment Banking Americas at Crédit Agricole CIB— Listen Next:  Full conversation with Marilyn CeciFull conversation with Romina Reversi— Discover More from SRI360°: Explore all episodes of the SRI360° Podcast Sign up for the free weekly email update 

Blended finance is making hard deals in emerging markets investable. It drives real infrastructure development where capital markets are thin. And when the work involves emergency aid and building businesses, you need someone who’s seen how money really works in emerging markets. Few people know how to make those pieces fit together better than my guest today. Talmage Payne has spent three decades proving that mission-first investing can deliver both measurable social impact and competitive returns. Talmage is the founder of multiple social ventures across Southeast Asia and West Africa. He now serves as chairperson of TapEffect, a piped water utility delivering clean water to rural communities. There, households pay for the service, and the company delivers an 8-9% IRR. Today, we talk about how to blend grants, equity, and debt to scale essential services and how smart impact measurement keeps both investors and operators accountable. Join us to learn: What actually drives infrastructure investing success in low-income areasWhy good intentions aren't enough for viable social venturesHow to structure capital to crowd in commercial investorsThis is a conversation about what actually works backed by real numbers. Tune in. —  Discover More from SRI360°: Explore all episodes of the SRI360° Podcast Sign up for the free weekly email update — Additional Resources: Talmage Payne LinkedIn  TapEffect website

My guest is Mark Kahn, Managing Partner at Omnivore, a $295 million venture capital firm investing in startups across agriculture, food, and the rural economy in India, focused on climate risk resilience. In this episode, we talk about how venture capital can be redesigned to fund climate adaptation in the real economy, and still deliver real returns. Mark shares what he’s learned from over a decade investing in agritech and climate adaptation in India, and why institutional investors continue to underestimate the opportunity in emerging markets. We also discuss: how Omnivore balances financial returns with measurable impactwhy fintech for inclusion is key to rural transformationwhy fund managers need to build for climate resilience, not just growthTune in to hear why India may be the most logical and overlooked bet in climate-smart venture capital. And why it's time to fund adaptation before it's too late. —  Discover More from SRI360°: Explore all episodes of the SRI360° Podcast Sign up for the free weekly email update — Additional Resources: Mark Kahn LinkedIn Omnivore Website

Richard Brandweiner, Chair of Impact Investing Australia and a longtime institutional investor, joins the show to discuss the realities of impact investing at scale. He reflects on universal ownership, system-level risks, blended finance, and what it truly takes to align capital with real-world outcomes and fiduciary expectations. Richard shares lessons from leadership roles at Perpetual, Aware Super, LeapFrog, Pendal, and Regnan, and why hope isn’t a strategy when designing investment frameworks meant to deliver measurable impact. A candid conversation for investors, asset owners, and practitioners who want an honest look at where sustainable finance is working, and where it isn’t. —  Discover More from SRI360°:  Explore all episodes of the SRI360° Podcast Sign up for the free weekly email update— Additional Resources: Richard Brandweiner LinkedInImpact Investing Australia Website

In this episode, I talk with Ron Homer – Chief Strategist for Impact Investing at RBC Global Asset Management, and one of the earliest architects of community development investing in the United States. Ron’s perspective was shaped in Bedford-Stuyvesant, where he watched a thriving neighborhood decline not because of its people but because mortgage support and investment disappeared. That experience set him on a five-decade mission to help redirect capital back into places that had been overlooked. He went from banking in Boston to co-founding Access Capital Strategies, where he flipped mortgage-backed securities into something that actually supported low- and moderate-income communities. In 1997, he co-founded Access Capital Strategies with the goal of creating market-grade, fixed-income products that were community-aligned. His idea was to use the same mortgage-backed security structure that powered Wall Street, but build it around loans made to low- and moderate-income borrowers. The model showed that you could structure institutional-grade portfolios that delivered both financial performance and community impact. In 2008, Access Capital Strategies was acquired by RBC Global Asset Management. When the global financial crisis hit shortly after, Ron’s portfolios outperformed, especially for clients like New York City. “We were the highest performing investment – made 10% – because people who had 30-year fixed-rate mortgages and were buying them for shelter didn’t default.” Today, Ron leads RBC’s U.S. impact investing strategy, part of a fixed income platform with about $80 billion AUM. His team oversees about $3 billion in community investment strategies. These include customized portfolios primarily composed of agency-backed mortgage securities targeted at low- and moderate-income borrowers, as well as allocations to SBA loan securitizations and municipal bonds. And the results are measurable: over 50,000 individual homes financed, tens of thousands of affordable multifamily units, and for institutional clients like the City of New York, quarterly reports that track each dollar to the specific mortgage, census tract, borrower income level, and racial demographics, down to the loan level. But data only tells part of the story. What keeps Ron going is something deeper: the ripple effect. He believes homeownership and small business act as beacons within communities. “If you have one or two people who take pride in their home, maybe that becomes three people and four people and five people." That’s how change takes root, with visible progress that others want to join. Ron also sees what he calls “conditioned helplessness”, a kind of behavioral resignation that sets in when people stop believing their efforts will make a difference. “Some people think the only way to get money is through concessions. But the community doesn’t need concessions. They need access.” Ron didn’t invent impact investing. But he helped prove it can work, not just morally, but financially. And he did it by choosing reform over revolution, trusting the data, and never letting go of the lesson from Bed-Stuy: that pride and ownership, applied the right way, can change everything. Tune in. — 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 — Additional Resources: - Ron Homer LinkedIn - RBC Global Asset Management

My guest today is Eva Yazhari – General Partner at Beyond Capital Ventures and one of the most original thinkers in the world of impact investing. Trained on Wall Street, Eva left finance to found Beyond Capital, turning her expertise toward building impact-driven markets.  Beyond Capital Fund was structured as a nonprofit, a 501(c)3 – not to do charity, but to meet the moment. She describes it as “almost like a Trojan horse” – a structure that made her approach more acceptable to early supporters, even as she operated with full VC rigor. She knew in 2009 that most investors did not yet believe emerging markets could deliver both returns and impact. So she created a structure that was more palatable – donors could get a tax deduction, while she quietly ran the fund like a VC from day one. There were no grants. No concessionary capital. They always behaved like a VC. The result was a top‑quintile track record: a 0.3% loss ratio, markups, and over 100 million people reached through portfolio companies’ products and services. But the nonprofit structure also kept the firm smaller than it needed to be. “I think it was the right thing to do, but I think it was a little bit of a mistake in the growth of the firm.” In 2019, someone approached her after a talk and simply asked, “How do we invest?” – and that was the moment she knew the market was finally ready. She and her team launched Beyond Capital Ventures, a for‑profit venture fund, carrying forward the same thesis with a structure that allowed investors to participate directly in the returns. Today, Beyond Capital Ventures invests in early-stage companies across East Africa and India. It’s one of the few woman-led impact VC firms globally, with a team that’s 70% based in the markets they invest in. Eva’s approach is hands-on, thesis-driven, and unafraid to push boundaries. She refuses deal flow from Europe or the U.S. because she believes the best opportunities come from being on the ground. As she says, “I’d rather the principal who runs our Nairobi office meet a founder while filling up his water bottle, than us meet them through some other channel.” Beyond Capital has pioneered something radical in VC: the equitable venture structure. 10% of the GP’s carry is allocated to portfolio founders. Not only does it create community – it’s created collaboration. That motivates companies across her portfolio now to share customers, talent, and capital. She measures impact as rigorously as she measures financial performance. Her team uses a three-tier framework aligned with IRIS and SDG metrics. And she’s clear-eyed about what success looks like. “Everybody is focused on sourcing better and investing better. Nobody is focused on adding value, and that is exactly where everything goes right or wrong.” Eva’s career is proof that creativity, service, and capital don’t have to be separate. And that you can build something that lasts if you’re bold enough to hold them together. Listen in. — 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 — Additional Resources: - Beyond Capital Ventures website - Eva Yazhari LinkedIn - Eva Yazhari Instagram - Book ‘The Good Your Money Can Do’ - The BCV Podcast

My guest today is Jamie Friedland, a former U.S. Treasury trader turned sustainability analyst at AXA Investment Managers – one of the world’s largest and most active players in sustainable investing. He joined AXA Investment Managers – now part of BNP Paribas Group – in March 2022. Within the group, BNP Paribas Asset Management oversees over €716 billion in assets, while the broader platform manages around €1.5 trillion globally. Approximately 90% of listed assets are classified under Article 8 or 9 of the EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, meaning they integrate sustainability or have a dedicated sustainable objective (Source: BNP Paribas/ AXA Investment Managers (Core) as of end of 2024). At AXA, Jamie works in a central ESG role, focused on public investments and helping integrate sustainability across equities, fixed income, infrastructure, and alternatives. The results are detailed – and sometimes strict. AXA applies hard exclusions in its green bond strategies. Nuclear energy, for example, is allowed in conventional mandates and in unlabeled strategies that hold green bonds. But it’s left out of AXA’s official green bond funds – because some clients have made it clear they don’t want it included in the list of eligible projects. This is the real balancing act – between client preferences, shifting regulation, and ESG data that’s still catching up. Jamie likens it to steering a tanker: slow to move, but once it shifts, the weight behind it is massive. Still, ESG doesn’t operate in a vacuum. The backlash – especially in the U.S. – has been loud, often political, and sometimes confusing. Jamie’s answer is disarmingly simple: ESG is just data. And more information is always better than less. Today, he’s here to walk us through how one of the world’s largest asset managers turns ESG from principle into portfolio decisions. Tune in. — DISCLAIMER: This communication does not constitute, on the part of AXA Investment Managers, a solicitation or investment, legal or tax advice.   Due to its simplification, this document is partial, and opinions, estimates, and forecasts herein are subjective and subject to change without notice. There is no guarantee forecasts made will come to pass. Data, figures, declarations, analysis, predictions, and other information in this document is provided based on our state of knowledge at the time of creation of this document. Whilst every care is taken, no representation or warranty (including liability towards third parties), express or implied, is made as to the accuracy, reliability or completeness of the information contained herein. Reliance upon information in this material is at the sole discretion of the recipient. This material does not contain sufficient information to support an investment decision. — 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 — Additional Resources: - Jamie Friedland LinkedIn - AXA Investment Managers website - Full-year 2024 earnings - BNP Paribas Asset Management - Point of No Returns 2025: A responsible investment benchmar

My guest today is Laura Segafredo – Chief Growth Officer at NatureAlpha, and a systems thinker who’s spent the last twenty years connecting science, policy, and capital to build tools that help finance face the realities of the climate crisis. Laura began her career as an energy economist in Europe and California, contributing to major climate policy efforts like the Paris Agreement. She then spent nearly a decade at BlackRock, where she helped transform ESG from a niche concern into a $500 billion force across fixed income and index investing. She led the creation of green bond tools, sustainability frameworks, and data standards that shaped the firm’s global strategy. But as ESG became increasingly politicized, innovation stalled, and Laura decided it was time to chart a new path. She took a leap – from the world’s largest asset manager to NatureAlpha, a small startup using geospatial data to bring nature into investing. There, she’s helping investors understand how companies depend on and impact natural systems – like water, soil, and biodiversity – and what happens when those systems start to break down. Most portfolios have never seen this data. Now they can. NatureAlpha’s core product is Geoverse 2.0 – a geospatial AI tool that analyzes 8.5 million asset locations worldwide, tagging each with indicators of ecosystem health and how much a company depends on nature. It uses a quadrant model to flag the danger zone: places where companies are highly dependent on ecosystems – like rivers, forests, or soil – that are already deteriorating. That’s where risk concentrates – high dependency, low resilience. The idea is to turn that risk into insight. Geoverse doesn’t just map individual assets – it scans entire portfolios, helping investors see exposures they’ve never seen before. Through partnerships with data providers and platforms like ICE – and collaborations across the wider investment ecosystem – NatureAlpha is working to make its nature-related insights more accessible to investors within the tools they already use. That unlocks what Laura calls the “double dividend”: portfolios that reduce nature-related risk and keep pace with market returns. Still, Laura doesn’t overpromise. If there’s one lesson she’s carried from the ESG battles, it’s this: be transparent about what you know, and even more about what you don’t.  Today, she’s studying eco-theology, writing essays, and speaking to philosophers, post-growth economists, and faith leaders.  My conversation with Laura goes way beyond ESG. It’s about what shifts when you zoom out from carbon and start seeing nature not as scenery, but as infrastructure. When rivers, forests, and soil stop being externalities and start showing up on the balance sheet. If you tune in, you'll also hear what made her lose faith in market-based climate solutions, what the biggest lie the industry tells itself, and why the next big revolution in investing may be a moral one. Because in the end, Laura’s not trying to build better ratings or cleaner tickers. She’s trying to build a better world – one that we might actually want to invest in. — 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 — Additional Resources: - Laura Segafredo LinkedIn - NatureAlpha website - Moral Revolution Podcast

My guest is Nidhi Chadda, founder and CEO of Enzo Advisors – a female- and minority-led sustainability and climate advisory firm that helps companies and investors integrate ESG factors into strategy and performance. She’s a former Wall Street portfolio manager who believes ESG isn’t about politics – it’s about disciplined risk management and long-term value creation grounded in data. Before launching Enzo, Nidhi built a career that spanned investment banking, consulting, and asset management – always driven by a desire to understand what truly creates value in business.  It all came together years later at RBC, when she encountered ESG research that reframed sustainability as a core driver of financial performance.  That’s when it clicked – ESG wasn’t just about mitigating risk; it could actually drive value creation. She immediately signed up to help bring that approach into U.S. investment strategies. Her team built a scorecard of over 20 ESG factors – human capital, environmental exposure, governance – and tied them directly to outcomes like revenue growth and cost savings. It was a data-first approach that opened a new chapter. In 2020, Nidhi left a high-paying job managing billions to start her own ESG consulting firm, Enzo Advisors, a female- and minority-led sustainability consulting firm based in New York. It was a risky moment. But she knew the field was shifting. ESG was moving from a “nice to have” to a core part of operational resilience. And Enzo’s mission was to help small and mid-sized companies operationalize ESG and show them how ESG could actually make them stronger, more resilient, and more valuable over time. Nidhi calls it Sustainability 2.0 – less about saying the right thing, more about doing the right thing... and measuring it. At the center of her strategy are three things companies can actually measure: Revenue growth: Winning new customers and entering new marketsCost savings: Cutting waste, using energy more efficiently, and improving supply chainsCost of capital: Getting better loan terms or investor interest by reducing risk and improving governanceBut she doesn’t stop there. She’s also Chief Impact Officer at Richmond Global Sciences, where she helps advance RGS Rift – a data-driven platform that applies impact-weighted accounting principles to quantify a company’s environmental, customer, and employee impact in financial terms. It’s built on a concept called impact-weighted accounting, which is just a fancy way of saying: let’s measure how companies help or harm people and the planet – and translate that into real numbers. She doesn’t get sucked into the political drama around ESG. Instead, she helps companies and their boards zero in on what actually moves value. And she’s hopeful. AI is making data better. Investors are asking smarter questions. And the whole conversation is shifting  –  away from buzzwords, toward real business fundamentals like risk and performance. If you strip away the noise, the labels, the acronyms – what you’re left with is a simple idea: ESG, done right, is just disciplined business. Nidhi Chadda knows how to make it work in the real world – and in this episode, she shares exactly what that takes. — 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 — Additional Resources: - Nidhi Chadda LinkedIn - Enzo Advisors LLC website