At 6:14 am this morning I flew from Cville to NYC, and boy are my arms tired (tee hee). I am spending quality time with my brother and his wife making a wild rice stuffing and a chocolate-espresso cake for the big day tomorrow.
I will not be live-blogging my thanksgiving. I will be giving thanks for all those things like family, good friends, and good health, that, no matter what kind of weather, are so so important in life, and over-eating.
I did, however, find a live thanksgiving blog on the NYT Dining Out Blog, that is happening blocks from where I am now -- somewhere in a brownstone in Brooklyn: http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/26/live-blog-from-soup-to-nuts/?hp.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Net Impact National Conference - Day 1
Net Impact held their annual conference to a sold out audience this weekend in Philly. Sustainable business has arrived. The conference was full of optimism that a business case can be made for greening operations, investing in clean tech, and scaling social enterprises, and that the momentum in the business world, together with public sector change, will move us toward to solving today’s most pressing crises.
Here are some quick take-aways from the panels I attended:
Day 1: Finance Goes Green (Panelists: Credit Suisse, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, CCX)
The panel was split between M&A advisory people and internal advisors on ‘green’ issues. Financial institutions have to be ahead of the curve and responsive to change; they are typically some of the most responsive institutions to major paradigm shifts.
Here’s where the panelists see green financing going:
Fuel Cells (1990s) -->Wind, solar equipment and energy generation (present) --> Energy efficiency and water issues (water is still currently in the realm of VC and PE). They see the current economic slowdown creating a blip, but not derailment, in that trajectory, especially with projects that take longer to go online (wind projects take 12-18 from financing to operation) and require greater upfront capital requirements.
And this is how they’re incorporating it into how they do business:
Citi: Dedicating $50 BB over 10 yrs to climate positive activities. 1) GHG reducing, 2) transitional technologies (getting to solutions that reduce GHG) like gasification.
HSBC: won’t loan to those that do not demonstrate an environmental plan, engage in constructive dialog with client companies.
Credit Suisse: Primary mission is to assess whether or not the business is financeable, but they seek to identify climate change and social risks during the due diligence process.
Goldman Sachs: Future pricing of negative externalities will change the structure of finance. Integrate environomental due diligence into all policy units. Work with IB side on natural resources deals, on principaling side on natural resources and renewable deals.
Unconventional Partners: KKR and EDF Join Forces to Drive Results
My favorite panel, this one focused on KKR and EDF applying lessons from their TXU negotiation, to pilot greening KKR’s entire portfolio of companies. Working with a few of KKR’s companies, such as US Food Service, they’re developing a process playbook for companies that seek to create real value by understanding their impacts and what drives excess energy and material usage. I can’t say what they’re like outside of this panel, but they seem pretty chummy.
Sustainability efforts and private equity may seem an unlikely marriage, but maybe it’s not. PE works with private companies that do not have the pressure of quarterly earnings and can afford to go after investments with a longer payback and ROI.
Future of Sustainable Investing (Panelists: Principals for Responsible Investing, Innovest)
Innovest is modeled after bond agencies and provides research/ratings to fund managers on a large universe of about 2300 companies. PRI works with institutional investors and help them consider Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues when refining their portfolios.
This panel got going with a look at what caused the current financial crisis. The panelists highlighted that among the many causes was a breakdown of trust in the financial services sector--people sold products that were difficult for the customers to make sense of or that the sales person knew that their customers could not afford.
Innovest led the session; it was interesting to hear how they rate companies on a sector-by-sector basis, and especially how they rate banks (through who they lend to and underwrite).
The rest of the two-day conference was packed with panels, networking lunches, inspiration from people taking practical steps to respond to climate change, composting, and more.
Here are some quick take-aways from the panels I attended:
Day 1: Finance Goes Green (Panelists: Credit Suisse, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, CCX)
The panel was split between M&A advisory people and internal advisors on ‘green’ issues. Financial institutions have to be ahead of the curve and responsive to change; they are typically some of the most responsive institutions to major paradigm shifts.
Here’s where the panelists see green financing going:
Fuel Cells (1990s) -->Wind, solar equipment and energy generation (present) --> Energy efficiency and water issues (water is still currently in the realm of VC and PE). They see the current economic slowdown creating a blip, but not derailment, in that trajectory, especially with projects that take longer to go online (wind projects take 12-18 from financing to operation) and require greater upfront capital requirements.
And this is how they’re incorporating it into how they do business:
Citi: Dedicating $50 BB over 10 yrs to climate positive activities. 1) GHG reducing, 2) transitional technologies (getting to solutions that reduce GHG) like gasification.
HSBC: won’t loan to those that do not demonstrate an environmental plan, engage in constructive dialog with client companies.
Credit Suisse: Primary mission is to assess whether or not the business is financeable, but they seek to identify climate change and social risks during the due diligence process.
Goldman Sachs: Future pricing of negative externalities will change the structure of finance. Integrate environomental due diligence into all policy units. Work with IB side on natural resources deals, on principaling side on natural resources and renewable deals.
Unconventional Partners: KKR and EDF Join Forces to Drive Results
My favorite panel, this one focused on KKR and EDF applying lessons from their TXU negotiation, to pilot greening KKR’s entire portfolio of companies. Working with a few of KKR’s companies, such as US Food Service, they’re developing a process playbook for companies that seek to create real value by understanding their impacts and what drives excess energy and material usage. I can’t say what they’re like outside of this panel, but they seem pretty chummy.
Sustainability efforts and private equity may seem an unlikely marriage, but maybe it’s not. PE works with private companies that do not have the pressure of quarterly earnings and can afford to go after investments with a longer payback and ROI.
Future of Sustainable Investing (Panelists: Principals for Responsible Investing, Innovest)
Innovest is modeled after bond agencies and provides research/ratings to fund managers on a large universe of about 2300 companies. PRI works with institutional investors and help them consider Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues when refining their portfolios.
This panel got going with a look at what caused the current financial crisis. The panelists highlighted that among the many causes was a breakdown of trust in the financial services sector--people sold products that were difficult for the customers to make sense of or that the sales person knew that their customers could not afford.
Innovest led the session; it was interesting to hear how they rate companies on a sector-by-sector basis, and especially how they rate banks (through who they lend to and underwrite).
The rest of the two-day conference was packed with panels, networking lunches, inspiration from people taking practical steps to respond to climate change, composting, and more.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
