"The Possibility for Profound Change in America"

We're in the driver's seat for "The Possibility for Profound Change in America" an amazing lecture which recognizes each of us are responsible for systemic change for our civilization. I met Gar a while back and he's extraordinarily thought provoking. Inspiring, and worth the investment of time. Enjoy!


Gar Alperovitz E. F. Schumacher Lecture from New Economics Institute on Vimeo.

Book: "Economyths Ten Ways Economics Gets It Wrong"

The challenge of our time is that our myth is that we have no myths.


Irony is, that we are still a deeply mythological culture and it is high time that our culture recognize the false premises and untenable myths that define our economic paradigm.

This is most recently highlighted by a blog from The Capital Institute which mentions a book on the myths of our economic viewpoint. Here's the blog entry:


"A Capital Institute shout out to Leland Lehrman for sharing with us David Orrell's eloquent cri du coeur found at the conclusion of Economyths, 10 Ways Economics Gets It Wrong. Leland calls the book "a brilliant reconstruction of economics that covers gender, happiness, fairness and other perspectives on economics in intellectually and mathematically rigorous ways without becoming unreadable." "


From the book:

"So, students. Decision time. You live at what many believe is a bifurcation point in human history. You've seen all the graphs with lines curving up like a ski jump. Human population. Gross domestic product. Species extinction. Carbon emissions. Inequality. Resource shortages. You know that something has to give. You've got an idea that the price isn't right. Maybe you're even suspicious that if the world economy does turn out to be a Ponzi scheme, you or your children are a little bit late to the game."

"You therefore stand at a fork in the road. You can take the orthodox route -- and risk ending up with a qualification as impressive as a degree in Marxist ideology right after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Or you can take a chance on regime shift by speaking up, questioning your teachers, being open to disruptive ideas, and generally acting as an agent of change. You can insist that the economy is a complex, dynamic, networked system -- and demand the tools to understand it. You can point out that the economy is unfair, unstable, and unsustainable -- and demand the skills to heal it. You can tell the oracles that they have failed. You can go in and break the machine. And then you can do something new."

I'm heartened by the fact that so many people have economics on the mind, and are independently coming to similar conclusions.

I trust that in coming years our economy will look much different, and work much better for the well being of humanity and all living beings on the planet. 

We are the 100%

An important ethos expressed in this film, words of my friend Charles Eisenstein, author of the recent book "Sacred Economics"

Social Complexity Theory as a framework for new economic models

I have just learned from my brilliant friend Ron Schultz that he's the co-author of another book on complexity in the context of business. It is called "Coherence in the Midst of Complexity"

In my conversation with him, I learned that the ideas outlined in his book would most definitely apply in my field. I gathered that anyone who shares my passion for advancing the new frameworks in the fields of Sustainable and Responsible Investing would benefit from seeing the world through the lens of "coherence in the midst of complexity."

Here's an overview of Social Complexity Theory from the book's website.

"Complexity and emergence (the appearance and impact of the new) can be the bane of managers and their organizations. Both complexity and emergence threaten to upset adherence to predefined categories, which supposedly allows for efficiency. Indeed, traditional management thinking focuses on a retrospective coherence where ideas and events are assigned to categories, the categories are labeled, and outliers are treated as statistical deviants.  

"The study of how such attributed (retrospective) sense-making breaks down in and around organizations is the focus of social complexity theory. Coherence in the Midst of Complexity discusses the social complexity approach, where dialogue and stories allow for the degrees of freedom needed for the opportunities of emergence to take root. The book focuses on the experience of coherence and how such experiential lessons differ from the establishment and maintenance of categories and labels."

"Social Complexity Theory examines the role of coherence and emergence in organizations. Coherence is regarded by many psychologists as critical to day to the day productivity and effectiveness of individuals. Both scholars and managers have adapted this belief to the world of management and organizations. Coherence is regarded as a sign of a well-run organization. But, the concept of a coherent thought defined as how well an idea holds together as a single entity gradually breaks down as the scale shifts to individuals, groups, and ultimately larger organizations. 

"Adapting to and dealing with emergence is perhaps the most important task facing managers and organizations. Coherence as traditionally defined interferes with that task. By restricting the concept of coherence to measurement against definition (what we call ascribed coherence) managers and organizations implicitly are restricting their ability to deal with the unknown, the uncertain and the emergent." 

"Social Complexity Theory provides another perspective on coherence -- rooted in the felt experience of coherence and in the importance of emergence. Richard Rorty tells us: Knowledge is not a matter of getting reality right, but rather a matter of acquiring habits of action for coping with reality. In common parlance such coping mechanisms are called models. The aim of Social Complexity Theory is to teach managers and members of organizations to make use of some very different models as part of their coping mechanisms."

Upcoming Movie - "Thrive"

Thrive, a very important upcoming film with some friends in it. Here's a link to the trailer.

Greg Wendt Interviewed on "The Dr. Pat Show - Talk Radio to Thrive By"

Click here to hear the show.

Contentment.

From a Taoist Scripture - via a friend's text message:
"Don't chase after people's approval.
Don't depend on your plans.
Don't make decisions;
let decisions make themselves.
Free yourself of concepts;
don't believe what you think.
Embody the inexhaustible.
Wander beyond all paths.
Receive what you have been given
and know that it is always enough.
The Master's mind is like a mirror:
It responds but does not store, contains nothing,
excludes nothing, and reflects things exactly as they are.
Thus she has what she wants and wants only what she has."

Economics based on Beauty and Community: Putting Aesthetics back into the Economy

Here's an article I posted on Ethical Markets Blog a while back - enjoy:

Right before I boarded a plane after a green business conference last year, I noticed a Body Shop store in the terminal next to the gate. The Body Shop was founded by the late Anita Roddick who was a very influential and inspiring thought leader who was one of the pioneering business people who incorporated social and environmental values into her operations. 

As I thumbed through my reading materials I found an article in Resurgence Magazine by Roddick entitled “The Currency of Imagination.” This eloquent article laid out some of her guiding principles and reflections on being one of the only CEOs in the crowd of human beings who raised their voices against the globalization paradigm represented by the 1999 WTO meeting in Seattle.

In the article she laid out a new vision for society, a vision which I share, where we establish community and beauty as driving values for our individual and institutional decision making. I have learned that for any successful endeavor in new economic thinking to work, it must be built on a culture of trust and collaboration amongst the participants. Such ideas have inspired me in the efforts I have made in my region. I am the co-founder of Green Business Networking in Los Angeles, a monthly networking event which brings together entrepreneurs and professionals committed to greening our economy through their businesses and the Green Economy Think Tank which convenes sustainability leaders to evolve solutions for a green economy.

Somewhere along the line we picked up a virus in our culture’s source code. This virus misguided us by placing money and power as the central measuring sticks for success, all fed by a rapacious economic operating system driven by the gospel of consumerism. The ethos of our economy has become largely devoid of beauty and community, transactions have become ”complex, opaque, [and] anonymous based on short term outcomes” according to Don Shaffer, President of RSF Social Finance. Instead, he states our transactions need to become “direct, transparent and personal, based on long term relationships.” On a similar theme, Judy Wicks, founder of the White Dog Café, who is also a co-founder of the very successful movement “Business Alliance For Local Living Economies” lives these principles. She says that her business was built on the principle of “maximizing relationships” rather than “maximizing profits.” As a result of her focus, her business thrived with the satisfaction of higher sales, and happier people.

In the wake of the recent financial crisis, and the significant ills facing our world, it has become clear to many people that the prevailing economic paradigm is no longer working to improve the wellbeing of all of humanity. With climate crisis, declining ecosystems, billions in wretched poverty, food riots, childhood diabetes, etc. individuals and institutions are experiencing the severe ramifications of an avaricious and predatory economic model. However, there is another way.

Let's take a moment to inquire into the nature of the latent economic opportunity of which Roddick spoke -- that which incorporates improvement of the quality of relationships founded on beauty and community into the economic equation. I am keen to discern the most effective and coherent actions necessary to transmute our current economy of waste into an economy of thriving abundance, conservation and renewal for 100 percent of humanity. Our economic paradigm utilizes debt manipulation and consumerism as a short-sighted means to an unforeseen dead end and endless gluttony for a few at the top of the heap.

Here's what Roddick said:

“Consumerism doesn’t care if we buy in beautiful or ugly surroundings. Few aspects of the global economy provide beauty or community and, worse, in many ways it drives them out by deliberate manipulation of debt, which is as powerful a motivator as has been invented in human history. Providing for vital needs like beauty, creativity and community requires another kind of economy altogether.”

Sadly, and with far reaching consequences, our current economy has failed to value these essential components of quality of life.  Roddick pointed out that the economist John Maynard Keynes “talked about the hideous waste of an economic system that could not recognize art or beauty…. In a speech to the Irish government in 1933, he urged politicians and economists to raise their ambition, and spend the money on beauty.”

The economy of beauty that we need transcends and includes the artful beauty of which he speaks. It is a culture of thriving community and high strong relationships built on trust: people inspired by, evolving and learning from others and from the beauty that surrounds them.

How do we recognize and create such a vibrant community as the foundation of a successful economic paradigm?

Such a community has “deep connectivity” between participants. An economic system that encourages such “deep connectivity” would have to be based on the currency of relationships. An interesting example is the deeply successful Mondragon Cooperative movement, a community-based economic system successfully operating in the Basque region of Spain. It started during the Great Depression in the 1930s and thrived amid the oppressive Franco dictatorship. Mondragon succeeded in such a fascist context “by avoiding confrontation, not by being passively servile but by doing what was for the good of all.”

In his book “The End of Money and the Future of Civilization,” author Thomas Greco made an important point that the success of the Mondragon experience is replicable, but only in conjunction with the simultaneous weaving of a strong social fabric. That effort need not necessarily be centered around ethnic identity and culture, but could be based on other common factors between the participants such as religious affiliation, geographical proximity, shared values, or other factors that create common interests (but with concern for the greater common good always foremost.)

It is precisely this inherent characteristic of wishing to be part of something greater than ourselves that has given humans a sense of meaning since time immemorial. This heroic sense of contribution and sharing for the common good is a key principle of true success.

Consider: has there ever been a time in history when this kind of collective heroism is more important than now, when the stakes are as high as they can get?

Mondragon scholar Terry Mollner makes a distinction between the declining ‘Material Age’ and the emerging ‘Relationship Age,’ and concludes that the [Mondragon founders] ‘set about building a Relationship Age society by extending into more sophisticated realms the Relationship Age values which were already present in Basque society.’

Along the same lines, Roddick concludes “We will succeed to the extent to which we encourage human connection and conversation. We will succeed also to the extent to which we spend the small change of imagination – the human stories about people and places and what they aspire to do.”

Although it has been said before – we are at a critical juncture where our global circumstances require each of us to embrace a kind of global responsibility in every relationship we have. We share the responsibility to manifest the “Relationship Age” right where we are. A Relationship Age of artful living in deep connectivity is the evolutionary catalyst to shift our current economic operating system towards the creation of shared well-being for all of us on spaceship Earth.

"Money and Life - A Story about Money That Will Change Your Life"

Just befriended Katie Teague who is making this amazing film "Money and Life"  with interviews with my heroes and friends such as Orland Bishop, David Korten, Lynne Twist, Hazel Henderson, Ellen Brown, Stuart Valentine, Bernard Litaer, Charles Eisenstein who are some of the most inspiring people in this field I have met. 


The movie articulates many ideas which are unexamined issues in our global culture which has by and large placed the money at the center of the altar. 

So, since our global civilization worships the God of Money, or the accumulation of it, we are all well served to inquire into the nature of Money, and Life. And explore how we can work with money to heal, serve and increase life and well being for all residents of our world.


Lynne Twist states - "It's as if we, as a species, have realized we have a terminal disease and we need to come together in community and get ourselves through the crisis, and it will change the very fabric, the very nature, of our relationship with life itself."



Money & Life trailer from StormCloud Media on Vimeo.

The Empathic Civilisation Emerging For The Community of Our Planet

Simply - as all disciplines of knowledge such as anthropology, biology, physics, psychology, economics, neuropsychology, etc. become more sophisticated and evolve, every discipline must also evolve in response to incorporate new world views. Further all the institutions of our culture - education, governance, religion, commerce, etc. are currently based on outdated world views.  As the world views evolve, so must the institutions.

This video is one of the most succinct articulations of a vision of an empathic civilization based on solidarity with all life on the planet.

Public Banking - "Banking in the Public Interest"

Excellent article was just written called "Reviving Main Street - A Call for Public Banks" highlighting the opportunity states across America have to restore a healthy economy - simply by creating a state bank.

Surprisingly, North Dakota is the only state in the union which has created its own bank.

The article highlights work of thought leader Ellen Brown , and the Public Banking Institute which educates policymakers about the opportunities from the straightforward process of forming a state owned bank.

Her site shares that:

"Public Banks are...
• Viable solutions to the present economic crises in US states.

• Potentially available to any-sized government or community able to meet the requirements for setting up a bank.

• Owned by the people of a state or community.

• Economically sustainable, because they operate transparently according to applicable banking regulations

• Able to offset pressures for tax increases with returned credit income to the community.

• Ready sources of affordable credit for local governments, eliminating the need for large “rainy day” funds. 

• Required to promote the public interest, as defined in their charters.

• Constitutional, as ruled by the U.S. Supreme Court

...and are not

• Operated by politicians; rather, they are run by professional bankers.

• Boondoggles for bank executives; rather, their employees are salaried public servants (paid by the state, with a transparent pay structure) who would likely not earn bonuses, commissions or fees for generating loans.

• Speculative ventures that maximize profits in the short term,  without regard to the long-term interests of the public."

The Fastest Growing Socially Responsible Business Movement in the Country....

BALLE, The Business Alliance for Local Living Economies is a national effort of independent business networks in over 80 cities.

Green Business Networking, the non-profit business community I started in 2006, is the LA County BALLE network dedicated to serving LA Region's business professionals and owners building our green economy!

Here's an inspiring video about the BALLE effort, and conference - and look for my brief comment at 3:21 into the video:


Place Matters: Living Economies 2011 from BALLE on Vimeo.

Measuring our success and standard of living - it's not only about the money we make!

There was a sign in Albert Einstein's office at Princeton which said: "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts."

With our singular focus on money in our global culture, many carry the belief that simply "more money" equals "more happy".  At a very basic level of subsistence more material goods and services in our lives are necessary for a degree of happiness, but beyond the fundamental level, there are diminishing happiness returns on every extra dollar of income or accumulation.  All of us know in our heart of hearts that at for anyone who has their basic needs met, the "more money equals more happy" is not really true.

Then, how do we measure the standard of living or true well being happiness in a community or a region?  Challenge is that our much of lives and well being do not all fall into the category of "economic activity."  Yet the issue remains -- how do you MEASURE the level of progress and standard of living in all of the non-financial dimensions?

In his book "Prosperity without Growth - Economics for a Finite Planet" Tim Jackson states:

"There is an interesting overlap between components of prosperity and the factors that are known to influence subjective well being or 'happiness'. Indeed to the extent that we are happy when things go well, and unhappy when they don't, there is an obvious connection between prosperity and happiness. This doesn't necessarily meant that prosperity is the same thing as happiness. But the connection between the two provides a useful link into recent policy debates about happiness and subjective well being."

Some of the components of "quality of life" - real wealth - are loving relationships, supportive and vibrant community, good health, cultural and creative stimulation, healthy and vibrant natural environment, contributing to society in a meaningful way and spiritual fulfillment. 

Yet, ironically, one of the key methods that most countries define standard of living is the measure of "Gross National Product" or GDP, which is simply a financial measure of economic activity.  But to meet the Earth’s challenges, these outmoded ways of measuring the “product” of our economy have to be reexamined. They are out of touch with our finite supply of natural resources (or natural capital) upon which our economic growth depends and they are similarly out of touch with the non-financial dimensions of the well being of participants in a society.

Article - "What’s blocking sustainability? Human nature, cognition, and denial"

We are in the midst of a paradigm shift from the old ways of understanding reality to a more sustainable civilization. William Rees wrote an article that articulates key concepts.

In summary he writes: 

"In 1992, 1,700 of the world’s top scientists issued a public statement titled The World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity. They reported that “a great change in our stewardship of the Earth and the life on it is required if vast human misery is to be avoided and our global home on this planet is not to be irretrievably mutilated.” More than a decade later, the authors of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment were moved to echo the scientists’ warning asserting that “[h]uman activity is putting such a strain on the natural functions of the Earth that the ability of the planet’s ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted.” Ours is allegedly a science-based culture. For decades, our best science has suggested that staying on our present growth-based path to global development implies catastrophe for billions of people and undermines the possibility of maintaining a complex global civilization. Yet there is scant evidence that national governments, the United Nations, or other official international organizations have begun seriously to contemplate the implications for humanity of the scientists’ warnings, let alone articulate the kind of policy responses the science evokes. The modern world remains mired in a swamp of cognitive dissonance and collective denial seemingly dedicated to maintaining the status quo. We appear, in philosopher Martin Heidegger’s words, to be “in flight from thinking.” Just what is going on here? I attempt to answer this question by exploring the distal, biosocial causes of human economic behavior. My working hypothesis is that modern H. sapiens is unsustainable by nature—unsustainability is an inevitable emergent property of the systemic interaction between contemporary technoindustrial society and the ecosphere. I trace this conundrum to humanity’s once-adaptive, subconscious, genetic predisposition to expand (shared with all other species), a tendency reinforced by the socially constructed economic narrative of continuous material growth. Unfortunately, these qualities have become maladaptive. The current coevolutionary pathway of the human enterprise and the ecosphere therefore puts civilization at risk—both defective genes and malicious “memes” can be “selected out” by a changing physical environment. To achieve sustainability, the world community must write a new cultural narrative that is explicitly designed for living on a finite planet, a narrative that overrides humanity’s outdated innate expansionist tendencies. "

Davos Annual Meeting 2011 - Redefining Sustainable Development

Institute for New Economic Thinking - Rethinking Economics

"Overview

Founded in October 2009 with a $50 million pledge byGeorge Soros, the New York City-based Institute for New Economic Thinking is a nonprofit organization providing fresh insight and thinking to promote changes in economic theory and practice through conferences, grants and education initiatives.

The Institute recognizes problems and inadequacies within our current economic system and the modes of thought used to comprehend recent and past catastrophic developments in the world economy. The Institute embraces the professional responsibility to think beyond these inadequate methods and models and will support the emergence of new paradigms in the understanding of economic processes.

The Institute firmly believes in empowering the next generation, providing the proper guidance as we challenge outdated approaches with innovative and ethical economic strategy.

The Institute’s objective is to expand the conversation to create an open discussion for a wider range of people. Some would say that present day dialogue is closed and polarizing. We recognize the need for an environment that is nourished and supported by discourse, a discussion that spans a much wider spectrum of thinking and incorporates the insights of other intellectual disciplines in both the natural and social sciences.

The Institute was conceived during the first half of 2009 through a series of discussions that culminated at a summit in July of 2009 in Bedford, NY."

The co-founder of the institute  Research in Motion’s CEO Jim Balsillie gave a particularly good talk as his participation in the panel at the World Economic Forum on the subject of "redefining economics," and rethinking the entire paradigm of the situation.

"Property is intended to serve life" - notes on the fact that corporations are not people.

"Property is intended to serve life, and no matter how much we surround it with rights and respect, it has no personal being. It is part of the earth man walks on. It is not man." 
Martin Luther King, Jr. 

As a financial advisor, I advise people on their property - and much of that property exists in shares of corporations.


What is a corporation, more than simple property that are collectively owned and operated by human beings?

Oddly enough, however, somewhere in our legal code over the last 150 years such property was given the same rights and voice in our democracy as human beings. Most recently the supreme court has granted business interests unlimited spending in campaigns - thus granting corporations the rights of human beings in the democratic process of governing our society. There is an excellent article on the entire issue called "Wal-Mart is Not a Person" which gives a comprehensive overview of the topic, which excerpts Justice John Stevens of the supreme court:

"It might be added that corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires. Corporations help structure and facilitate the activities of human beings, to be sure, and their “personhood” often serves as a useful legal fiction. But they are not themselves members of “We the People” by whom and for  whom our Constitution was established."

And most interestingly - if we really look at the point of view that holds that corporations are actually persons - then the question which human beings are actually represented by such corporations?

Stevens addresses this here:

"It is an interesting question “who” is even speaking when  a business corporation places an advertisement that endorses or attacks a particular candidate. Presumably it is not the customers or employees, who typically have no say in such matters. It cannot realistically be said to be the shareholders, who tend to be far removed from the day-to-day decisions of the firm and whose political preferences may be opaque to management. Perhaps the officers or directors of the corporation have the best claim to be the ones speaking, except their fiduciary duties generally prohibit them from using corporate funds for personal ends. Some individuals associated with the corporation must make the decision to place the ad, but the idea that these individuals are thereby fostering their self-expression or cultivating their critical faculties is fanciful."

Not all businesses are corrupt, yet when it comes to the simple process of human beings coming together to design ways to serve life, the people that founded this country intended that actual people engaged in democracy. Thus it is imperative that we only grant constitutional rights to actual human beings, not property.


There are a number of movements afoot to amend the constitution, among them is http://movetoamend.org/ which states:

"We, the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United, and move to amend our Constitution to:

* Firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.

* Guarantee the right to vote and to participate, and to have our vote and participation count.

* Protect local communities, their economies, and democracies against illegitimate "preemption" actions by global, national, and state governments.

The Supreme Court is misguided in principle, and wrong on the law. In a democracy, the people rule."

The simple thought here to take away is that as citizens in this world to we must continuously refine our discernment of the true motive, and the consequences, of decisions, laws, candidates, proposals, and political movements. And to discern whether such laws actually serve the quality of life of human beings.
 

Article I wrote "Social Capital Markets Conference 2010: The Evolution of Money and Meaning" for Green Money Journal

I thoroughly enjoyed this year's Social Capital Markets Conference. I wrote an article about it for Green Money Journal below.


"Social Capital Markets Conference 2010: The Evolution of Money and Meaning"


The very existence of the Social Capital Markets conference, known as SOCAP, says it all - over 1,300 vibrant, excited, inspired, brilliant leaders - philanthropists, social entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, micro-finance entrepreneurs, advisors, and consultants who joined together at San Francisco's Fort Mason in early October. They're all working with investing as a means to create better lives for the world's poor, restore and grow healthy ecosystems, foster social entrepreneurs, local food systems, local businesses, and more. All this was just a glimmer in the eye of SRI investors decades ago. Now, it is a reality.


It began this year for me the moment I took a photo of one of the receptions with my phone and posted it with this caption: "Tune in - turn on! Can you feel the Evolution happening? Social Capital Thought Leaders Meta Networking for the Common Good! It's REALLY happening all around the world and a thriving vortex in San Francisco! http://www.socialcapitalmarkets.net "


Estimates are that upwards of $120 billion of investment capital is now available for investments which have meaningful returns, while at the same time address environmental and social woes.


How have things grown, how have things evolved?

There are many areas of development. The meaning of "Capital Market" itself is being explored with innovations like Hoop Fund, where purchass of organic apparel, organic chocolate, quinoa and other foodstuffs are resulting in direct investments in the rural entrepreneurs who produce those products, and the well known micro-finance organization Kiva.org, enabling a global marketplace of people to people investing for good.

The Development of the Impact Investing Space

Impact Investing is a type of Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) that aims to provide environmental or social benefits in addition to economic profit. While the exact size of the Impact Investing market is not known, it is thought to be around $50 billion today, and according to some estimates may reach an astounding $500 billion within the next decade.

Many organizations, including the Rockefeller Foundation, have been part of an effort to create "the basic systems and networks necessary to identify, vet, and monitor investments efficiently"[1]. A comprehensive, dynamic database of the Impact Investing space will be a useful tool for investment advisors in that space who currently rely on a large amount of "one-to-one communication methods" to gather information. Further, those companies seeking investors want a formalized and functioning marketplace to attract capital. The effort is not a small one, and it seems that many smaller efforts have begun to work together. A project created through a Rockefeller Foundation Impact Investment Initiative grantee called the Global Impact Investing Network ( http://www.globalimpactinvestingnetwork.org ) aims to develop the Impact Investing space through a number of initiatives.

These initiatives include:

• IRIS - Impact Reporting and Investment Standards. Includes specific data points in setting impact standards. Sarah Gelfand is director of the IRIS project. More information about IRIS at: http://www.iris-standards.org 
• GIIRS - Global Impact Investment Rating System. A rating system similar to Morningstar's on how effective an investment creates an impact in a particular area. The system is being built by B-Lab. 
• Data Aggregator - "a repository to compile the data points on multitudes of organizations for market comparisons, benchmarking, and other analytics." 
• PULSE - "a web-based portfolio management software application designed to help money managers track the socially positive impact of investments by plugging directly into the IRIS taxonomy and database." Currently 6 companies are using a beta version, and there will be 150 using the next version soon. Acumen is a principle author along with Salesforce, Google, and App-X.

Partners include: Rockefeller Foundation, Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Hitachi, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, J.P.Morgan, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Imprint Capital, RSF Social Finance, Calvert Foundation, Acumen, and B-Lab.

GIIRS is a ratings endeavor that provides social and environmental impact ratings for companies and funds seeking to raise capital from impact investors.

The GIIRS community has launched the "Pioneer Funds," a compilation of the leading funds in the space, enabling investors, analysts, and researchers to have a better handle on the core of the movement through what are perceived to be the leading funds representing the scope of impact investing. GIIRS is a project of the non-profit B Lab whose mission is to use the power of business for a better world. More information about GIIRS at http://www.giirs.org/about-giirs/about

Twelve leading North American impact investing funds were announced as GIIRS Pioneer Funds at the conference and thirteen leading emerging market funds were highlighted at the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship in April. In sum, the 25 GIIRS Pioneer fund managers represent $1.2 billion in assets under management and have investments in more than 200 high impact companies in over 40 countries. The twelve North American Funds named include City Light, Capital, Core Innovation Capital, Equilibrium Capital, Good Capital, Mindful Investors, Murex Investments, Renewal Partners, RSF Social Finance, Satori Capital, SJF Ventures, SustainVC, and TBL Capital. More information at http://www.giirs.org/for-funds/pioneer

Markets with a Mission

Another effort to make the market of impact investments more transparent and thriving was represented by the launch of Mission Markets, "a financial services company that operates ‘The Impact Investment Platform' supporting the social and environmental capital markets." Mission Markets' unique trading platform, Mission Markets Earth Exchange, includes transactions in environmental commodities such as carbon credits and Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) as well as Wetland Mitigation and Habitat Credits. In the future, lesser known vehicles including Stormwater Runoff Credits, Mangrove Credits, Biomass Units and Marine Carbon Credits. Mission Markets CEO and Founder Michael Van Patten unveiled his groundbreaking platform during the panel entitled "Mapping the Space: Innovative Markets for Good," and stressed that the company supports both social and environmental markets. More on Mission Markets at http://missionmarkets.com

SOCAP has been kind enough to share videos the insightful panel discussions and keynote speakers from its conferences. To view the "Innovative Markets for Good" panel featuring Michael Van Patten and a demonstration of the Mission Market Earth Exchange, visit:http://video.socialcapitalmarkets.net/2010/10/innovative-markets-for-good-mappin...

Getting Individuals and Families Involved

While much of the Impact Investment space has been limited to institutional investors, the Money for Good report by Hope Consulting includes a number of valuable studies to help unlock the Impact Investing marketplace to all sectors. Their initiative outlines that there marketplace represents nearly $120 billion of retail investors willing to invest in impact investing, with amounts smaller than $100,000.

Their studies also outline important barriers due primarily to the fact that impact investing is still in the early stages. Some of the issues are:

• Lack of track record 
• Investors don't know where to find information on Impact Investments 
• Advisors not recommending Impact Investments 
• Limited advice available 
• Insufficient ratings/benchmarks

Also their study identified three major segments of investors with different motivations for impact investing: Safety of investment first. Socially focused, and Quality of organization to be invested in.

In order to move forward to broaden the access for individuals, there are several key factors necessary to be developed: Information and infrastructure, Financial Advisors, Products.

For organizations trying to unlock this market:
A. Clarify what impact investing means
B. Build awareness of impact investing and the opportunities available for investors
C. Develop and disseminate information on impact investing to financial advisors

For all organizations involved in Impact Investing:
D. Structure products with small initial investments (<$25,000)
E. Tailor products and messages by segment, to appeal to different motivations
F. Make opportunities accessible to investors
G. Position these as investments, not as alternatives to charity
H. Address barriers related to the markets' immaturity, which are consistent across segments

Another key point is that in order for Impact Investments to reach the retail marketplace, financial advisors need to be a central part of the equation. Here are the points that Hope Consulting identified.

Majority of respondents used an advisor:

• #1 source of information for investors 
• 45% want to transact through their advisor

However, many advisors don't know about these opportunities. And when they do know, they see barriers to recommending them:

• "There isn't a database with these options" 
• "I can't find out about them where I find out about other opportunities" 
• "I am not confident in the track record" 
• "Where is my upside?"

There are just the highlights of the study, find out more here http://hopeconsulting.us/money-for-good

Shopping the Talk

Another exciting development is the work of Gloria Nelund CEO of TriLinc Global. Her firm's effort is to bring retail investors to the impact investing space based on her years of experience in many different roles in major investment banks:

"TriLinc Global, LLC is the world's first impact investment firm dedicated to harnessing the collective power of main street investors in the United States to help businesses in developing countries create jobs, grow the middle class and generate measurable positive impact. Founded by a team of proven investors and entrepreneurs, TriLinc Global is dedicated to the idea that positive economic growth, social progress and environmental sustainability can and must go hand and hand.

The Company currently operates in the U.S., Latin America and South Asia and invests capital through a series of proprietary funds with a new focus on non-traded SEC registered retail fund vehicles. These vehicles pay a fixed current dividend, offer long-term capital appreciation potential, and produce measurable social and/or environmental impact results."

The Good Pitch

The Good Pitch is a British-based venture that introduces impact filmmakers to parties such as NGOs, foundations, brands, and other potential allies and funders who share a passion for socially inspired films. Among the films pitched was Megan Gelstein's documentary Green Shall Overcome about Van Jones, the former Green Jobs Czar, whose time in Washington was cut short due to some of his "controversial" views. Jones also spoke at the event, sharing stories of his travails as well as his mission to help build a new socially empowering green jobs economy, themes both at the heart of the film. Trailers of the eight films selected for good pitch are available here: http://goodfilm.org/goodpitch/overview

Other Groups and Projects of Note

Social Venture Technology (SVT) Group ( http://www.svtgroup.net ) has published a book called Social Return on Investment: A guide to SROI analysis. Their analysis of the existing methodologies on Impact Investing helped inform the development of IRIS.

According to Investment News, there is another platform being developed called Alternative Investment Product. The platform is being developed by the Depository Trust and Clearing Corp. (DTCC) and is already being utilized by Pershing, and Schwab is testing it. DTCC is hoping that its new platform will become the industry standard. [2]

In London, plans are underway to create a Social Stock Exchange. The exchange would feature companies with a social or environmental purpose, and its creators also hope to eventually attract businesses from the developing world. [3]

The Evolving Social Capital Markets Ecosystem

One brief article cannot cover the myriad conversations, projects, desires, intentions and enthusiasm in the space. And there is more to come. At a recent speech in San Francisco, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced SOCAP@State, a joint endeavor with SOCAP and the State Department to take place in Washington, D.C. in 2011. Meanwhile, across the pond, SOCAP Europe runs from May 31 through June 2, 2011 in Amsterdam.

We are making a difference, one dollar, one idea, one intention at a time, for the common good!

To see many of the dynamic and powerful speakers from the past two SOCAP conferences, watch videos here: http://video.socialcapitalmarkets.net

Article References:

[1] Investment strategy - Architects of a ‘social investment data engine'. (2010, April 11). Financial Times. Retrieved June 15, 2010, from http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e297b7de-440b-11df-9235-00144feab49a.html

[2] Kelly, B. (2010, June 6). Coming soon: Clarity on alternative investments? Investment News. Retrieved June 15, 2010, fromhttp://www.investmentnews.com/article/20100606/REG/306069981/-1/INIssueAlert01

[3] Social Stock Exchange Could Be 18 Months Away. (2010, April). The Rockefeller Foundation. Retrieved June 23, 2010, from http://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/news/social-stock-exchange-could-be-18-mont...

Article by Gregory Wendt, CFP is the Vice President of Sustainable and Responsible Investing. He is frequently profiled or quoted as an expert in the media including "Living with Ed" Television Show on Home and Garden Television, Business Ethics magazine, Daily Variety, Financial Planning magazine and Yogi Times magazine. Greg speaks regularly at conferences on the matters of new paradigms in economics, sustainable and responsible investing, new consciousness around wealth and related matters. Mr. Wendt is also the co-founder of the non-profit Green Business Networking (http://www.greenbusinessnetworking.org), a community of over 3,500 green business owners and professionals in Los Angeles dedicated to green economy, and the founder/visionary behind Green Economy Think Tank Day (http://www.greeneconomythinktank.org ) an annual conference for LA Region's sustainability leaders. Contact Greg by email at gwendt@epwealth.com.

Special thanks to Mark Sutton who provided research and editorial support for this article. Mark is an Environmental Market Analyst at the San Francisco Carbon Collaborative who share's Greg passion for Impact Investing.