- Global Steering Group for Impact Investment (GSG) Summit speakers connect recovery from the pandemic to improving the lives of everyone, not just the well-off, comparing a lack of investment in some neighborhoods to “food deserts.”
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The role of impact investing in the pandemic recovery shaped the conversation on Day One of the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment (GSG) Summit, held virtually for the first time in its six-year history. From virtual reality to government incentives, a clear theme emerged: now is the time to do things differently.
Calvert Impact Capital CEO Jennifer Pryce was the one who made the apt connection to food deserts; a lack of stores selling fresh food is indicative of how infrastructure can completely overlook neighborhoods or groups of people. The same can be true for capital. A truly just recovery, Pryce argued, has to reconnect people and resources.
Ford Foundation CEO and GSG board member Darren Walker’s keynote made the case for that recovery in stark, moral terms: “There is something wrong if, when billions of people are hurting, those of us who have been investing in the stock market are better off than we were at the beginning of the pandemic. We must reflect on this injustice.”
Follow Meg Massey (@msmegmassey) and Neanda Salvaterra (@Neanda1) for more updates on the GSG Summit today and Friday.
In Other News: New Zealand ‘Brain Gain,’ Belarus Exodus
McDonald’s is piloting reusable and returnable coffee cups. Quantifying impact is still a good exercise, even if the results are “foggy.” What exactly does the Trump Administration have against ESG investing?! Multinational companies account for 20% of carbon emissions. In New Zealand, closing the borders for the pandemic is creating an unprecedented opportunity for innovation. Creeping authoritarianism in Belarus is forcing an exodus of tech experts.
Levity Break
Oh, great — now the robots are coming for our food.
