Thursday, November 27 - Investing with a "Climate Change Lens" during challenging times

At a gathering of grant makers, trustees and investment advisors ("The New New Economy: Investing With a Climate Change Lens During Challenging Times"], sponsored by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, methods were explored of generating investment returns which have a positive impact.

Two of the speakers, David Blood and Al Gore, said in order to protect their endowment assets, foundations need to think about the environment as much as anything else, and not because it's "the right thing to do".

Co-founder of Generation Investment Management, Mr. Blood, who used to be CEO of Goldman Sachs, said "Anyone who has a fund manager who does not recognize that we are on the verge of one of the biggest economic changes in history, you're running a huge risk".

Gore told the audience, "there are trillions of dollars in subprime carbon assets that rely on . . shaky promises . . the assumption that it's OK to put 70 million tons of global warming pollution into the earth's atmosphere every 24 hours is an assumption that's collapsing right now".

Both speakers feel many foundations are laggards in their approach and that they should be leaders in incorporating environmental factors into their investing.

[Generation Investment analyzes the triple bottom line of companies with the belief those that are socially and environmentally responsible will outperform their competitors.]

An article by Nicole Wallace about the meeting can be found on the Chronicle of Philanthropy website here:
http://philanthropy.com/news/updates/index.php?id=6363

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http://GlobalWarmingOpportunitiesGuide.org
for more on climate change and the economy.