On the podcast today I have Anjali Nelson, she’s General Manager of Operations at GreenCollar, an environmental markets developer that’s leading not only Australia, but the world, in developing nature-based solutions to combat both climate change and biodiversity loss. This is the fourth episode in our series of conversations exploring opportunities to ‘invest in natural capital.’ And it was a great opportunity to unpack the structures and benefits of carbon credits, but more importantly, to hear about how this market based mechanism is evolving, to offer benefits beyond just carbon removal, and steer capital towards the conservation and restoration of biodiversity. GreenCollar has been a pioneer in the space for a long time now, and they’re not slowing down, developing new products and methodologies like Reef Credits, and the new Nature Plus biodiversity credits. And of course GreenCollar is the sponsor of this series. I’ve followed the progress of this company since its early days when the team earned the backing of some heavy-weight impact investors. It was a moment that shifted my perspective, showing me that environmental markets are both a vital part of the clean energy transition, but also, a potent business sector, with huge growth potential. They proved me right on both counts, and it’s great to have them on board as a partner. You can find all the show notes and links on the website at www.Johntreadgold.com. Plus, that’s where you can sign up to my newsletter, your regular feed of impact investing news, as well as fresh startups and investment deals. Sign up, and follow along! Enjoy the show!

Today we’re approaching the topic of investing in biodiversity, by speaking to Nigel Sharp, he’s a farmer, but he’s also a businessman and a fund manager. And over the past two decades he’s been a pioneer in the ‘Business of Biodiversity’. Nigel is a pioneer in this space, the Tiverton investment vehicle has developed a whole range of agricultural projects on land holdings all over Australia, and all with the regeneration of biodiversity at their core. But that’s not all. He seeded the Dragonfly venture fund, to support early stage climate-tech and regen-ag startups. And, he founded the Odonata Foundation, an environmental charity working to save species from extinction. Now before we dive into the episode I want say a big thank you to the sponsor of this series, and that’s GreenCollar. GreenCollar is a developer and innovator of environmental market solutions, they recognise the power of putting a financial value on nature, as an incentive to drive sustainable land management, cleaning up our waterways and avoiding further loss of biodiversity and animal species. Since launching more than a decade ago, the company has become Australia’s largest developer of nature-based carbon credit projects, and they’re pushing the market forward with schemes like ‘Reef Credits’, which target improved water quality at The Great Barrier Reef. And their latest innovation is NaturePlus, a new form of biodiversity credits that aim to protect and restore ecosystems around the world. They’re measuring biodiversity outcomes on the ground, with a scientifically rigorous and verifiable methodology, that puts a value on natural capital, to enable investment in the conservation of high value ecosystems. Reach out to the team at www.GreenCollar.com.au to find out more. Plus, you can find all the show notes and links on the website at www.johntreadgold.com. And you can also sign up to the newsletter, to get the notifications on the latest podcast episodes, as well as practical insights about the evolution of impact investing. Enjoy!

The past decade has seen huge progress in the way companies analyse their exposure to carbon emissions, but far less effort has been put into understanding the complex interactions companies have with nature, and the risks this poses for investors and the health of our environment. If we’re to have a hope of reaching net-zero, we need to reverse the trends of biodiversity loss and incentivise companies to assess the risks and opportunities around natural-capital. On the podcast today we have the perfect guest to discuss this topic, I’m joined by Tony Goldner, he’s the CEO of the TNFD, the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, an organisation that was established to try and solve this very problem. The big news is that this week Tony and his team have published the final version of the TNFD Recommendations. It’s a framework that will give companies and investors alike a clear and uniform model for putting nature on the balance sheet. Tony’s worked at the helm of the TNFD since it was founded two years ago. He’s originally from Australia, he now lives and works in Europe, and he’s had a fascinating career that spans foreign affairs with DFAT, he’s worked in global finance, he’s been a consultant, and now he’s pulling it all together to convene a mix of stakeholders across the globe and across industries. It really was a thrill to speak to Tony on such a big week for the TNFD, the recommendations have only been live for a few days, and so in this conversation I did my best to offer a broad overview of the final recommendations, and practical actions to help us integrate them. And of course this episode is part of a broader series that’s exploring how we can shift our economy to be ‘nature-positive’, so be sure to subscribe so you can follow along. And a company that’s been central to the ‘nature positive’ mission is GreenCollar, which has come on board to be the sponsor of this series. GreenCollar is a developer and innovator of environmental market solutions, they recognise the power of putting a financial value on nature, as an incentive to drive sustainable land management, cleaning up our waterways and avoiding further loss of biodiversity and animal species. Since launching more than a decade ago, the company has become Australia’s largest developer of nature-based carbon credit projects, and they’re pushing the market forward with schemes like ‘Reef Credits’, which target improved water quality at The Great Barrier Reef. And their latest innovation is NaturePlus, a new form of biodiversity credits that aim to protect and restore ecosystems around the world. They’re measuring biodiversity outcomes on the ground, with a scientifically rigorous and verifiable methodology, that puts a value on natural capital, to enable investment in the conservation of high value ecosystems. Reach out to the team at www.GreenCollar.com.au to find out more. And, you can find all the show notes and links on the website at www.johntreadgold.com. And that’s where you’ll also find the Good future newsletter. Your source of insights and updates about the world of impact investing. You’ll stay up to date on trends, you’ll get access to the latest podcast episodes, and you might just get an early lead on the most exciting and high impact companies and funds. Enjoy the episode!!

On the show today we have Rachel Lowry, she’s Chief Conservation Officer at WWF. In this episode she explains why investors need to care about the growing biodiversity crisis, and the challenges of measuring and conserving natural capital. It says a lot about the sustainable investment movement that finally, conservationists and financial services are working together. To identify hotspots of risk, and establish sustainable models of capital allocation that can drive positive, measurable outcomes. Rachel is a passionate environmental advocate, but more than that, she’s focussed on solutions, and in this episode we dig into the practical actions that all investors can take to better align their portfolios with the goals of our economy becoming ‘Nature positive’ by the end of the decade. This is the first in a series of episodes exploring the concept of ‘natural capital’, and to get us there, we have the support of a new Good Future sponsor, GreenCollar. GreenCollar is a developer and innovator of environmental market solutions, they recognise the power of putting a financial value on nature, as an incentive to drive sustainable land management, cleaning up our waterways and avoiding further loss of biodiversity and animal species. Since launching more than a decade ago, the company has become Australia’s largest developer of nature-based carbon credit projects, and they’re pushing the market forward with schemes like ‘Reef Credits’, which target improved water quality at The Great Barrier Reef. And their latest innovation is NaturePlus, a new form of biodiversity credits that aim to protect and restore ecosystems around the world. Reach out to the team at GreenCollar.com.au to find out more. You can find all the show notes and links on the website at johntreadgold.com. And that’s where you’ll also find the Good future newsletter. Your source of insights and updates about the world of sustainable investing. You’ll stay up to date on trends, you’ll get access to the latest podcast episodes, and you might just get an early lead on the most exciting and high impact companies and funds. Enjoy the episode!

We’re moving from theory to practice with Ben Krasnostein and Dr Jodi York from Kilara Capital. They’re an impact investing powerhouse and today, we’re digging into the models and frameworks they employ, but more importantly, how their impact approach can help to both drive-down greenhouse gas emissions, while also boosting financial returns. Ben is founder and managing director of the investment management firm, Kilara Capital. He was born and bred in Melbourne, and after a stint in legal practice he found himself drawn towards business, investing and doing deals. He opened the doors to Kilara in 2017. And Dr Jodi York is Chief Impact Officer, she joined the team in 2020. She’s originally from San Francisco and she found herself in Melbourne via a stint in New Zealand. These two are the ideal guests for this, the third episode in my podcast series exploring the current inflection point that’s seeing impact measurement and management frameworks harmonise and consolidate and for investors that means it’s now easier than ever to use impact principles when allocating capital. Kilara has recently published its inaugural impact report, and we’ll dig into the very progressive models they used to compare their impact performance to a global baseline. As well as the impact hurdle that commits the firm to reduce C02e emissions by 15%, with a hit to the firm’s carry if they don’t achieve it. This was a really great conversation, packed full of practical insights about leading impact practice in Australia. And to go even deeper on the topic: this episode will be part of my IMM Special Report that’s coming soon, so sign up to my mailing list at www.Johntreadgold.com, so you don’t miss it. A quick disclaimer, nothing in this podcast is financial advice. Please do seek your own professional advice before making investment decisions. Enjoy!

In today’s episode we’ve got Sarah Gelfand on the show, she’s Managing Director of BlueMark, an impact verification business that was spun-out of consulting firm Tideline. She works with the world’s leading impact investors, to verify their impact results across both their management practices and their impact performance. And most recently she authored a report called ‘Raising the Bar’, which attempts to improve the quality of impact reports, which is vital, as there’s more being published than ever. Sarah has her finger on the pulse of leading practice in impact measurement and management. Her clients are some of the world’s leading impact players, and as a consultant she gets to ‘look under the hood’ of all sorts of investors that are all at different stages of their impact journey. She offers lots of great insights in this conversation, helping us understand how various impact frameworks fit together, the importance of being guided by a central strategy, as well as her hopes for the emergence of more reliable impact data to help us move beyond rhetoric and to drive better impact performance. This was the second episode in my series of discussions exploring the current state of Impact Measurement and Management, and how the harmonisation of leading frameworks represents a powerful inflection point. I’ll pull all of the key insights together into a special report that will be released in due time. To be sure you don’t miss it, sign up to my newsletter on my website www.johntreadgold.com that's where you’ll find the show notes, as well as more details about me and my business. Enjoy the episode!

We talk a lot about impact investing on this show, and while we tend to focus on the deals and the companies, we often gloss over the more challenging process of impact measurement and management. Right now is an important time to explore these issues, because the structures of impact investing are at an inflection point. The market has realised the importance of using consistent systems, and the frameworks are starting to consolidate, they’re harmonising. Today we have Dean Hand on the show to help us explore impact measurement and management, she’s Chief Research Officer at the GIIN (the Global Impact Investment Network), and she’s had long experience with impact reporting, both at the GIIN, which is a pivotal player in developing these impact measurement and management systems. In this episode Dean explains both the origins and the utility of the leading frameworks that the GIIN manages. But we also explore the broader alphabet soup of frameworks, standards and principles that are out there. And, on this important topic, I want to take the research further. So I’m going to take the insights from this episode with Dean, and from the next few episodes with other leading practitioners, and pull it all together into a special report. It’ll have input from global leaders in the space, with case-studies highlighting leading practice in the market. It should be out soon, but if you don’t want to miss it sign up for my newsletter, and you’ll get it in your inbox as soon as it’s released. You can sign-up on my website at www.johntreadgold.com and of course that’s where you’ll find all the show notes from the podcast, and all my other various writings and work. Enjoy!

If there’s one person you want to speak to, to get the lowdown on everything impact investing in Australia as well as round the world, it’s Rosemary Addis. She’s been a guest on the show before, and it’s great to have her back to talk about everything from Australia’s new government, the growing pains facing ESG investing, how impact will integrate with the global disclosure rules, as well as her new venture, Mondiale Impact. Rosemary has been pivotal to the development of sustainable finance, she co-founded Impact Investing Australia, she’s our representative on the G8’s Social Impact Taskforce, and she has her ear to the ground on the trends and innovations in this rapidly developing world of impact finance. For all the show notes jump on to my website at www.johntreadgold.com And if you’d like to leave a review, iTunes is the best place for that, because it helps more people find the show. Enjoy

This episode is a little different, because Cory Ames interviews me. Cory hails from San Antonio in Texas, he hosts the Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation podcast, and when he invited me back onto his show, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to share it with you all. To offer a different perspective on my work, my ideas, and how the Good Future podcast has evolved. You’ll hear a lot more of my voice in this episode than usual, but I did try to turn the questions back to Cory, to dig into the social enterprise sector in the US and understand the opportunities and challenges he’s seeing to drive positive change, through business and innovation. Now this is a different format for me, so please do let me know what you think. I’m always open to feedback, so feel free to send me an email, all the details are on my website at www.johntreadgold.com. I’m really eager to hear from you all, you can also reach out to me on my personal LinkedIn page, as well as the Good Future Instagram account. Enjoy!

This week, I’m speaking to Reece Proudfoot, he’s Head of Innovation & Impact Investment at WWF Australia. That’s right, the charity with the Panda as it’s logo, that’s worked hard for decades on conservation and saving animal habitats. They’re going beyond their projects in the field and they’re also investing in systems change by supporting high-impact enterprises. And that’s what we’re all about here on the Good Future podcast, I’m your host John Treadgold, and I’m asking the big questions about the business of sustainability, the new economy, and how your spending and investment decisions can have an impact. Reece found his way to WWF as a campaigner, but he knew all too well the challenge of raising awareness as the world has grown noisier, as well as raising money when people have so many worthy causes in front of them. Like all good startup founders, he made a pivot, and helped launch Panda Labs, WWF’s impact accelerator program. Since them they’ve seeded and grown enterprises like OpenSC, a supply chain platform that tracks food sources on the blockchain. And more recently, the business ImpactIO, which brings people together around a central challenge, and then links project leaders, with both supporters and investors. Their most recent Challenge is called Innovate to Regenerate and it’s a partnership with Damon Gameau who has released a new short film, all about bringing people together to Regenerate Australia. Now I’m sure you’d hear Reece talk about it, so let’s get into it. All the links and show notes are on my website at www.johntreadgold.com, and if you’d like to leave a review, which would be greatly appreciated, you can do that over on Apple podcasts. Alright here’s my conversation, with Reece Proudfoot, here we go!