Sustainability has moved out of the asset management limelight over the last few years. Faced with more political pressures and conservative policy agendas in some countries, firms in the investment industry are experiencing slower flows into sustainable funds, even in Europe earlier this year. Schroders has been a leader in sustainable investment for almost 30 years, featuring dedicated sustainability career experts across asset classes, markets and countries. And today we’re speaking to Andy Howard – who heads sustainable investment globally at Schroders -- for his take on where we are, where we are going next and what Schroders is doing to continue to expand its leadership role in sustainable investment opportunities through active management and engagement.

The “Valley of Death” has become a popular term to describe a challenging period for sustainability focused startups. Bridging this “valley of death” in commercialization of sustainable technologies is a key role today's guest believes her company can play for their clients. Cindy Jia is Head of the Sustainable Solutions Group at ING Capital. Her goals for the ING team include accelerating adoption of sustainable tech and facilitating an easy transition between the different capital pools that are available. Today we're going to discuss the challenges in achieving these goals and how ING has progressed.

Today’s guest on the Sustainable Finance Podcast believes that we are in the early stages of a persistent, global investment mega trend driven by a massive, disruptive event - Climate Change! Dr. Julie Anderson is Program Director for the Masters of Science in Sustainability Mgmt. at American University’s Kogod School of Business. She previously held senior leadership roles at top investment firms, including serving as Director and Head of iShares US Sustainable ETFs at BlackRock, where she managed $58 billion in assets and led strategic initiatives across the business. She believes this global megatrend is an opportunity to change the way we think about and choose sustainable investments. Investors should engage with and support companies that produce products in a responsible way that also creates healthy environments. We should focus on creating companies that are more sustainable, more profitable and more competitive because they are managing their Climate risks and opportunities better.

How should energy transition investors and policymakers think about the role of technologies like green hydrogen and energy storage systems, and what policy frameworks are needed to de-risk investment in them that will accelerate the transition? This is especially true of supply chain risks when financing critical minerals projects and nature-based solutions like Voluntary Carbon Markets (VCM). Tokollo Matsabu and Patlong Advisory LLC, work with companies to globally deploy the company’s revolutionary electrolyser technology and make clean, green hydrogen economically viable in international markets. Today, SFP followers will also learn about Patlong’s Advisory role to the Lesotho Foreign Ministry on energy and sustainable finance policy initiatives.

Investors today have to consider sustainability and climate resilience across all asset classes in a diversified portfolio. In this episode, we speak with two professionals from Schroders to hear how these factors are integrated in energy infrastructure and real estate. David Boyce is Head of Schroders Greencoat US, which focuses on renewable energy infrastructure. Craig Morey is the Climate Lead for the Schroders Real Estate team, which makes direct real estate investments across the UK, Europe and Asia. Both of these teams reside inside Schroders Capital, the nearly $100 billion dollar private markets unit of Schroders, which also includes Private Equity, Private Debt & Credit Alternatives. The key message for SFP followers in this episode is that climate resiliency and returns are not mutually exclusive concepts. The current shift to climate resiliency in renewable energy and infrastructure is opening up very attractive investment opportunities, and enhancing current investments.

On today’s program Michele Bongiovanni talks about the 1.3 million member online global community and marketplace she launched in 2012. HealRWorld’s goal is igniting systemic change by unleashing the transformative power of sustainability-focused consumers and businesses. Members can find and shop socially committed celebrities, musicians, and small and medium-sized businesses from 170 countries while supporting the environment and social good. Shop the brands and small businesses whose products align with the values of sustainability-minded consumers.

Payment card issuer and processing powerhouse Enfuce challenges the global payment industry to go beyond compliance with the recent launch of the Fortitude Pledge, a bold new compliance and security standard. My podcast guests today are co-CEOs and co-Founders at Enfuce, Monika Liikamaa and Denise Johansson. The Pledge aims to eliminate 100% of financial crime risks across all Enfuce-processed card transactions. Enfuce believes that stopping 100% of human trafficking, money laundering, and terrorist financing is not optional—it’s essential to create a sustainable, 21st Century business model and a direct commitment to UN Sustainable Development Goal #16 and I’m very pleased to have Monika and Denise join me for this important conversation.

Shivanth Pande is the founder of NIMB ACE Capital, the first investment bank in Nepal to offer systematic sustainable investment plans and other financial services for employees who work for the bank’s corporate clients as well for the large underbanked population. Using a strategy that includes a variety of sustainable mutual funds, the bank now has more than 600,000 clients. In addition, Pande is the co-founder and current chairman of M! Nepal, a social venture that facilitates banks and microfinance companies in extending outreach of financial products to the poor urban and rural populations in Nepal.

Aniket Shah is Managing Director & Global Head of the Sustainability and Transition Strategy at Jefferies, a global financial services firm ranked #1 in the Institutional Investor Survey for Sustainability in the US, Europe, Japan and Australia in 2022-2024. Shah talks with us about using a face-to-face approach to advancing the energy transition: investors walking the streets, visiting the plants, talking to the people and learning the business culture. Shaw explains how in the current economic environment, climate adaptation and resilience-related investments are critical to continuing the global agenda on sustainability and human rights. Shah serves on the Board of Directors of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and teaches as an Assistant Adjunct Professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.

The story of Salish Elements began when one man gifted a bundle of tobacco to another. Rueben George and Omar Kassem first met at a gathering designed to provide Indigenous communities with the support of technology and business activists. Omar, is an energy industry engineer, working towards safely deploying hydrogen into British Columbia's utility infrastructure. Rueben is a globally recognized environmentalist and best-selling co-author of "It Stops Here", the story of the spiritual, cultural, and political resurgence of an indigenous nation taking action to reclaim their lands, waters, and food systems in the face of colonization. The gift of tobacco from Omar to Rueben led to discussions of how a green hydrogen energy business could provide an alternative to oil as well as share an economic opportunity with other Indigenous communities and First Nations in Canada. The idea of producing green hydrogen across B.C. with other Indigenous communities has become the story of Salish Elements, which Omar and Rueben have graciously agreed to share with our followers.

In 2022 alone, 4.1 million hectares of tropical forest were lost due to drought, deforestation, and wildfires, contributing significantly to global carbon emissions. Viridis Terra is addressing this urgent issue by focusing on the restoration of significantly degraded lands in the Ucayali and Loreto regions of Peru. Today’s SFP guest, Martin Beaudion Nadeau, is Viridis Terra’s Founder and CEO. In the program he talks about more sustainable farm management systems, including establishing biodiverse forests and agroforestry practices, and integrating native tree species and crops like cocoa and citrus. This aids in carbon sequestration and provides a sustainable source of income for local farming communities, empowering them toward long-term economic stability.

Low-carbon infrastructure projects that rely on proven technologies are often overlooked as too early-stage or lacking the scale to attract infrastructure investors. My guest today, Joshua Kaufman, CEO and Co-Founder at Khasma Capital, explains how his company bridges the divide between available capital and the urgent needs of climate-critical projects, specifically Circular Economy and Emerging Energy Transition technologies. These are industries with tremendous potential but high early stage requirements. Khasma Capital works with project developers to de-risk opportunities, attract large-scale funding and successfully reach commercialization.

What’s happening with climate-focused investment strategies given current market uncertainty? Today’s program reports good news. Schroders Capital, with $97 billion of AUM in global private capital, is applying decarbonization strategies to every asset class in its portfolios. My guest is Holly Turner, Climate Specialist at Schroders Capital. She walks us through how her team works with the companies in its portfolios to evaluate four levers for decarbonization. These levers consider both the portfolio and real-world outcomes an investment can achieve and which private market asset class is most likely to achieve each outcome, as well as contribute to a company’s net zero commitment.

The textile and fashion industries are responsible for 8% of global CO2 emissions, second only to Oil and Gas. 73% of clothing products end in landfills or get incinerated and 63% of products are plastic. The women who make up 80% of the textile industry workforce need decent working conditions and economic growth opportunities. These are the social and environmental impacts about which today’s podcast guest creates daily awareness and an urgent call for industry transformation. Marci Zaroff is the Founder & CEO of Ecofashion Corp. She devotes her days to advocacy with consumers, corporates and policy makers for end-to-end sustainable textile manufacturing. Her efforts and those of many others calling for a more sustainable apparel industry are working and I’m very glad to have her join me for this conversation.

“What do investors want?” is the primary question motivating Graham Sinclair, my guest today and one of the pioneers in sustainable investing: from launching the PRI (Principles in Responsible Investment) into emerging markets in 2007, to working with iconic firms like KLD, IFC, Parametric and AIG on Wall Street. We sat down to talk about Sinclair’s course at Harvard Extension School, “Making the Sustainable Investment Case,” which is one half of the Sustainable Finance micro certificate and a benchmark for candidates in the Masters of Sustainability program. New for 2025 is a two-part deep dive on Nature x Investment, drawing on the cutting-edge work of Irina Likhachova in biodiversity and fixed income. Sinclair is once again using “Fund Labs” projects for hands-on experiential learning with four specialist sustainable investment managers: Bill Page + Liz Simmie + Garvin Jabusch + Christofer Halldin. Listeners are in for a treat as Sinclair offers a unique perspective on what investors want.

The “Valley of Death” has become a popular term to describe a challenging period for sustainability focused startups. Bridging this “valley of death” in commercialization of sustainable technologies is a key role today's guest believes her company can play for their clients. Cindy Jia is Head of the Sustainable Solutions Group at ING Capital. Her goals for the ING team include accelerating adoption of sustainable tech and facilitating an easy transition between the different capital pools that are available. Today we're going to discuss the challenges in achieving these goals and how ING has progressed.

DeepSeek AI is unquestionably the media darling of the global information technology sector this year. News from the company in January about why DeepSeek is cheaper, faster and better at reasoning than other platforms roiled the NASDAQ technology stock market index and raised multiple questions, including: Will leading companies in the sector continue to increase their already frenzied build out of energy center capacity? Dr. Elham Kheradmand, today’s guest on the Sustainable Finance Podcast is the CEO and Co-founder of Lucid Axon and a Postdoctoral Researcher at University of Montreal. She has over a decade of experience in AI and financial technology research, and was a North American AI Leader of the year in 2022. Dr. Kheradmand also has some insights for our followers into just how good DeepSeek is.

On today’s program we talk about how universities are key innovators in solving the climate crisis. At the same time, as we read daily in the news, they’re dealing with tremendous uncertainty. So how is Lisa Sachs, the Director of the Columbia University Center on Sustainable Investment and the recently launched Columbia Climate School MS in Climate Finance, coping with these uncertainties in U.S. climate policy and sustainable finance? And what about the volatility in career opportunities that graduates of these programs will face during the next four years? For Sachs, these are just two of the stress points she is managing in today’s university environment. Sachs is also an Associate Professor of Professional Practice at the Columbia Climate School, where climate science and climate change are engaged in the 21st Century’s existential challenge for supremacy.

How does an “immigrant kid” become the Founder of a firm that provides sustainable solutions for institutional investors, including ESG market analysis and education, regulatory risk management and investment process design? Allison Binns is the Founder and Principal of Peregrine Strategy, She is also a Senior Advisor at Danu Venture Group, which provides early-stage investment access to technology companies focused on national security, new infrastructure and their enabling industries. Allison says her background as an “immigrant kid” has shaped the way she approaches investments and sustainability in general. We’re fortunate to have her as our guest for this episode of the SFP.

There are $200 trillion of investable assets across the global financial system, affecting the decision-making of businesses and the lives of billions of people. So in this challenging financial environment, how are major banks, asset managers and investors focusing on adaptation and resilience to guide investment decisions? On today’s program, Nikki Gwilliam-Beeharee, Head of Stakeholder Engagement at the World Benchmarking Alliance, walks us through their process for benchmarking how 400 of the largest companies in the global financial system are scaling adaptation to climate risks in the next decade.