Governments around the world are grappling with a huge array of increasingly complex social challenges. Outcomes-focused projects - sometimes called 'pay for success', or previously 'social impact bonds' - have shown clear potential to help address these challenges, by creating innovative partnerships between governments, philanthropy, the social sector and the private sector, based on a shared vision of success. But globally, this market remains small, especially relative to the scale of the...

In this episode, we're exploring the fascinating topic of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the role it can play in helping us build a better future (or not!). Our guest is Dorothy Chou of DeepMind, one of the world's leading AI companies. In our interview, Dorothy discusses:How AI is already driving significant scientific breakthroughs that are helping to reduce emissions and improve health outcomesThe importance of ensuring these benefits are shared equallyThe problem with our current dataWh...

In this episode, we're talking to Charlie Green, co-founder of The Office Group. Charlie (with his partner Olly Olsen, and a little help from Bridges' first fund) was an early pioneer in recognising the value that a sustainability-led approach could create in the real estate sector.Charlie talks about:How TOG was one of the first to introduce green roofs, and the impact it had on the businessWhy occupiers value sustainability features in buildingsHow the pandemic has changed the game for...

In this episode, we're focusing on a critical aspect of building a more inclusive economy: ensuring that more funding flows to businesses led by diverse founders. The stats are stark: although venture capital investment hit record highs last year, businesses led by black, Latinx and female entrepreneurs accounted for a disproportionately small amount of this - low single digit percentages at best. According to Morgan Stanley, this means we are missing out on a $4 trillion opportunity in the U...

In the U.S. alone, private foundations hold more than $1 trillion of assets. So how do we deploy more of this capital to help solve our biggest challenges? And can foundations play a bigger role in catalysing investment from across the broader financial spectrum?To discuss this, we're delighted to be joined by a true leader in the field: Roy Swan of the Ford Foundation. After a career in Wall Street (latterly with Morgan Stanley's Global Sustainable Finance division), Roy joined Ford to run M...

The world’s biggest asset managers control a significant portion of global AuM. If we want to supercharge the transition to a more sustainable and inclusive economy, we need them to direct more of this capital towards investing for impact.In recent years, almost all of the big money managers have been expanding their impact strategies, in response to rising investor demand – hiring dedicated teams and raising dedicated funds. But how do we make sure that this is more than just a marketing exe...

Web3 – the next generation of the internet – is set to transform our online lives over the next decade, with far-reaching implications for identity, privacy, finance, governance and more. So can we harness this new blockchain-enabled internet to drive better outcomes for people and the planet? Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are notoriously energy-intensive; but in this formative stage of Web3's development, we still have a real opportunity to embed sustainability and inclusion at the hear...

Most people know Richard Curtis as the creator some of the most successful British films of all time. But he's also been an hugely important figure in the development world, dating all the way back to 1985 when he co-founded Comic Relief after witnessing the famine in Ethopia (Red Nose Day) has since raised over £2bn for charity). In the last decade he has been working with the United Nations to advocate for the Sustainable Development Goals - and his most recent venture is Make My Money...

We are hugely reliant on nature; it is the bedrock of a healthy society and a healthy economy. Yet the human race continues to damage nature in profound ways. We urgently need to invest in restoring nature - but the current funding gap between existing commitments and the amount required is thought to be around $700bn a year globally.For this episode of 20/30 Visions, we caught up with James Alexander, chair of Finance Earth, a social enterprise set up to try and channel more private and publ...

It’s clear that we need more big investors to allocate more of their capital towards sustainability and impact. But what does this actually look like in practice? How do institutions get from broad ambitions or long-term commitments (achieving Net Zero, say) to specific portfolio construction decisions?These are the some of the questions we address in 20/30 Visions this week with our guest Graham Cook, who leads on responsible investment at The Phoenix Group. Graham was previously CIO at the ...

It's clear that we cannot build a more sustainable and inclusive world without substantial investment in emerging markets - not only because of the need to improve access to services and opportunities for low and middle-income consumers, but also because many of these countries are on the front line of some of the planet's biggest environmental threats. Impact investing can help to direct capital towards these challenges - but in most of these markets, the sector remains small and nascent. So...

Buildings contribute up to 40% of global carbon emissions (even more in big cities) - and 80% of the buildings we see around us today will still be around in 2050. So if we are to have any hope of getting to Net Zero, we need to get much better at refurbishing and retrofitting our existing building stock to make it more sustainable.Our guest this week is Emma Hoskyn, JLL's UK Head of Sustainability. We discuss:The scale of the challenge with our existing building stockHow attitudes are changi...

Our guest for this episode is Laurie Spengler, CEO of Courageous Capital Advisors, who's been leading the Impact Investing Institute's recent work on the Just Transition. In our interview, Laurie talks about:Why we'll never get to Net Zero unless we think carefully about the social consequencesWhat a Just Transition investment looks likeThe scale of the opportunity if we get this rightThe key barriers to adoption, and how we get around themThe organisations leading the way in mobilising ...

If we're going to have any hope of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, business and enterprise clearly need to play a central role. So it follows that we need to get many more of the world's best entrepreneurs working on solutions to our biggest social and environmental challenges - and then give them the resources they need to succeed at scale.This week's guest is Ella Goldner, the co-founder and GM of UK-based Zinc, whose model offers an interesting exemplar of how to do this. Zinc...

The world is currently lagging well behind target on many of the Sustainable Development Goals - but the challenge is particularly acute in Africa and the Global South. In this week's 20/30 Visions, we're delighted to welcome Dolika Banda, who after a long career with the International Finance Corporation now sits on a number of boards (including British International Investment) and has recently launched a new initiative promoting good corporate governance. Dolika draws on her vast exp...

Our first episode features a legend of the impact movement and one of its greatest change-makers: Sir Ronald Cohen, chair of the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment (and, inter alia, Bridges' founding chair). In our interview, Sir Ronald talks about:The importance of bringing impact into financial accountingWhat the Impact-Weighted Accounts Initiative is revealing about 3,000 top companiesWhy he thinks this transparency will change the worldThe opportunity for $1bn+ outcomes fundsWhy ...

For this episode, we were delighted to be joined by the Rt Hon Nick Hurd, former UK Government minister and now chair of the G7 Impact Taskforce, to talk about the role of government and multilateral institutions in driving the change we need. In our interview, we discuss:How the UK Government helped to accelerate two key markets in the UKWhy better cooperation with the private sector has to be a key priorityThe positives from COP 27 - and the clear negativesThe need for stronger account...

In this episode we're talking about science, and its role in tackling some of our biggest challenges. Our guest is Johanna Chao Kreilick, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a US nonprofit that does research and advocacy work around translating science into action. In our interview, Johanna discusses:How science is already showing us a clear pathway to Net ZeroWhy climate change is also a socio-economic and racial equity issueThe importance of people-centered policymakingThe recep...

In this episode, we're exploring another essential topic: innovation. If we are to have any hope of tackling the challenges we face, innovation is clearly going to be critical: not just inventing whizzy new technologies, but also designing better products and better services and better ways of working.Our guest is Ravi Gurumurthy, CEO of Nesta, which styles itself as "the UK's innovation agency for social good". In our interview, Ravi discusses:Why innovation is important - and why it's hardH...

To build a more sustainable and inclusive economy, we need to scale the businesses that are helping to solve our biggest environmental and social challenges. But what's the best model for funding the growth of companies that are focused on these long-term goals?Longer-term capital vehicles are increasingly emerging as a viable alternative to standard private equity and public markets. In theory, these models allow impact-driven business to remain focused on long-term value growth and impact, ...