ESG Series #3: The Role of Foundations and Nonprofits in the Green Revolution
Impact investing includes a wide spectrum of investors ranging from “concessionary investors” who are willing and able to take a lower return in exchange for a favorable environmental or social impact through to profit-seeking investors who believe conversely that the impact will actually drive rather than inhibit returns while lowering investment risks. This broad range of investors fund the broad range of projects across the green economy.
Prior to founding , Zach started his career in finance at Merrill Lynch where he specialized in structured finance. Zach also served as a high-yield and distressed corporate bond trader before leaving Wall Street to pursue an MBA at UC-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business with a focus on sustainability and environmental investing. Blue Forest is an interdisciplinary team of scientists, financial experts and engineering professionals with extensive infrastructure, public sector, and Wall Street experience. We are harnessing financial innovation and building partnerships with investors, non-profits, private companies, and the public sector to design sustainable solutions to systemic climate resilience challenges faced by vulnerable communities. Our flagship financial product, the Forest Resilience Bond, deploys private capital to finance forest restoration projects on private and public lands that reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire and enhance landscape resilience. Once the capital is deployed, beneficiaries of the restoration work repay investors over time based on one or more of the following benefits: reduced wildfire risk (and associated CO2 emissions) protected water quality, improved water quantity, increased hydropower generation, and job creation. Zach will be joined by Andrea Barrios of the Rockefeller Foundation's PRI Team which seed-funded Blue Forest.
currently works at the on the Innovative Finance portfolio, specifically focusing on harnessing finance to mobilize private capital for social and environmental outcomes. These new innovative finance solutions range from new investment vehicles, market opportunities, or partnership models. The innovation portfolio uses a venture philanthropy model and Andrea supports the sourcing and diligence of new financing solutions. In her early career, Andrea was an Operations Manager in the Athletics Department at the University of British Columbia, one of the largest in Canada with over fifty thousand enrolled students. Her focus on student learning outcomes led her to an invitation to a task force organized by the President’s council and her training and hiring processes were integrated into other programs. During her time, she also identified new revenue streams and collaborated with the Finance Department on new forecasting models for the department.
Andrea moved to the United States in 2014 and enrolled in a Masters of Business Administration program at the University of Virginia focusing on Investment Banking and Corporate Finance. During her time, she developed a pay-for-success model aimed at improving HIV patient outcomes in Washington D.C. Elements of the patient-centric approach has been adopted by several organizations in the design of similar models. Andrea holds an MBA from the University of Virginia’s Darden Business School and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of British Columbia.
