with Sophie Gupta, Principal and Head of Responsible Investment at Yaletown Partners, August 9, 2022 We were excited to follow up our well-attended session on How to get started with ESG for Startups with a VC-focused session. After all, many of the challenges are the same: are venture-backed companies (especially…

with Karen Craggs-Milne, VP of ESG at ThoughtExchange, July 27, 2022 — Claire and Eliza have been working with fast-growing companies on how to get started with ESG. We have found that there is a real gap in understanding what ESG means for startups. This isn’t surprising, since much of the institutional work happening here targets large, listed companies and their investors…

Chapter 4: External Initiatives — Note: We use “DEI” as shorthand for Diversity, Inclusion, Equity, and Belonging. Written by Claire Veuthey and Stoddard Meigs, part of the Grassroots Diversity Advocates group. This is Chapter 4 of a larger playbook that is still a work in progress. Here are Chapter 1, Chapter 2, and Chapter 3…

TLDR: Your company might be ready for a materiality assessment if: 1. You’ve engaged in some ESG activities but feel that they’re silo-ed 2. You’re getting the “what are you doing on ESG” question from stakeholders and would like to offer a thoughtful answer 3. You want to start taking…

There are so many projects languishing on the side of startup operators’ desks. Important-but-perhaps-not-urgent projects. Projects that aren’t being pushed by investors and whose success may be hard to measure. I’m thinking of the hiring manager who wants to make their interview process fair and equitable; the recruiter who wants…

Chapter 3: Internal Initiatives — Note: We use “DEI” as shorthand for Diversity, Inclusion, Equity, and Belonging. Written by Claire Veuthey and Stoddard Meigs, part of the Grassroots Diversity Advocates group. This is Chapter 3 of a larger playbook that is still a work in progress. Here are Chapter 1 and Chapter 2. We welcome…

Practical ESG and impact solutions for investors who are just ahead of the market — By now SRI/ESG/impact investing has been around a long time (yes, really.) Assets managed against ESG/impact mandates have grown at 14% CAGR since 1995. In 2020, US-domiciled ESG assets were estimated at $17 Trillion, or ⅓ of all managed assets. Ladies and gentlemen, we are past the tipping point.

When I started my career working at Innovest Strategic Value Advisors (now part of MSCI ESG,) I thought I’d forever work in a small, bright, ethical corner of finance. …

As noted in my first post, fintechs have rushed to fill in the gap between consumer expectations of banking and the often sad reality of banking. But what is banking, exactly? …