⚡ Facebook = vegan?
Good morning! For those who missed last Friday’s newsletter, here it is. It’s also the first day of fall. You know what to do:
We’re calling bulls*** on sustainable finance
Financial institutions know that people are starting to care about social impact and sustainability and have been making some moves to ride the wave. Unfortunately, while these make for wonderful PR, we’re calling bulls***.
Banks say they’ll be more sustainable
Banks collectively worth more than $47 trillion in assets adopted the UN Principles for Responsible Banking a day ahead of the UN Climate Action Summit in New York. These principles are intended to be a “guide for the global banking industry to respond to and benefit from a sustainable development economy
Our take: Upon a closer look, these principles look like they could be lifted off a consultant’s generic deck—they say nothing new and offer no plan for actioning them. At this point in the game, we need more.
Apparently Facebook is considered vegan
As some of you may have seen, a new vegan-themed ETF launched on the NYSE earlier in September. The US Vegan Climate ETF (VEGN) has attracted $4 million in assets since it’s launch and is up 1% (as of September 17).
Our take: While it’s awesome to see so much attention given to veganism, the ETF is more hype than anything else. VEGN includes companies like Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, and more because there just aren’t enough vegan companies to fill an ETF (obviously!).
However, here’s some positive news!
Bitcoin FTW
The NYSE launched a market for Bitcoin futures. The futures are part of a venture called Bakkt, with the goal of making “cryptocurrencies sufficiently transparent and regulated for individuals to use in retail purchases.” The futures market is intended to protect merchants and consumers from the volatility in prices.
Our take: We know some of you may be rolling your eyes, but we’re supportive of any advancements that make crypto and blockchain technology more commonplace. The technology as a platform, very much like the internet, is about access and can produce a more inclusive society.
King is dead, long live the king
The shift from the old-school combustion engines towards electric is picking up steam. The internal combustion engine is approaching its final leg and key industry players are realizing this. Before we reach the tipping point for EVs, anyone that wants to remain in the industry, will have to pivot their production investments and help with the cost reduction of EVs. We’ll give it less than 5 years.
Here’s some electrifying news:
GM vs UAW or rather Electric vs Labor:
Yesterday, Democratic presidential candidates including Sen. Elizabeth Warren and VP Joe Biden joined the workers to condemn GM for its lack of “loyalty.”
Move toward electric: GM believes that transportation is moving towards an electric, self-driving future. The production line to create an EV requires fewer humans than the current production processes. This means GM will need to rethink who it employs and the number of people it employs, and it likely will necessitate factory closures and job cuts.
Our take: The desire to move toward EVs is amazing, but it isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. How will it impact employment and the human lives directly dependent on the old processes? We’ll be looking at how this progresses.
Daimler goes electric
Daimler, whose namesake is credited for having invented the modern gasoline engine, is stopping development of new internal combustion engines to focus on electric vehicles.
Amazon orders 100,000 electric delivery trucks:
Not only a major investor in the EV startup, Amazon is leaning on Rivian to help reduce its carbon footprint by 2040. The order represents the largest purchase of light-duty EVs in history.
Other Notable Events
Walmart bans e-cigarette sales, dealing a major blow to Juul and other similar companies. Things aren’t looking great for Juul, despite the substantial efforts over the past year positioning themselves as a responsible actor.
Exciting news in the fashion world. Milan Fashion Week featured a multi-day campaign on sustainable fashion. Plus, Reebok launched a new maternity collection to help expectant mothers continue to stay active throughout their pregnancy.
This weekend, we attended a few exciting events related to sustainability and social impact: the Climate Strike in NYC and the Social Good Summit. Rather than highlight an essay like we normally do, we wanted to share our thoughts and reactions.
Focus on youth: Every speaker, young and old, kept stressing the message of the power of youth in transforming societies. In fact, we were some of the older folks in the crowd at the climate strike, and we’re only 26! Here were some of our favorite quotes from the events:
“Youthful moral clarity is not naivete” — Ayana Johnson, Ocean Collectiv
“The youth is what gives me hope, even if I don’t always agree with everything they say.” — Cindy McCain, McCain Institute for International Leadership
Changing the narrative: Most speakers at both events stressed the importance of activism and dialogue. We don’t disagree - these are important tools in the democratic process and have the power to transform society. However, these tools have been used for decades and we’ve barely seen change. We were therefore hoping to hear more actionable guidance on how to make global leaders, both in politics and in business, actually listen. How can we truly change the narrative to create the change we need, at the pace we need?
Rethinking value: There was a major focus on helping global leaders value the planet over capital. While this is a noble pursuit, we believe that this is nearly impossible. We live in a broken, capitalist system that is inherently designed to incentivize people to prioritize capital over everything else. Fundamentally reshaping what humanity values will take much longer than the time we have. We therefore think that it will be important to design solutions that create value for everybody both society as a whole and the powers that be. This is where social enterprises come in — it’s possible to make money and do good.
Ashish Gadnis, Founder of BanQu
When asked what he likes to do during his free time, Ashish replied:
“I haven’t taken any time off since the end of 2012. But if I had to, I would sit in my backyard staring at the hills and trees and meditating.”
BanQu is a groundbreaking for-profit / for-purpose blockchain-as-a-service software company solving the toughest global problem – Extreme Poverty. As the world’s first and only non-cryptocurrency blockchain platform—we help lift people out of extreme poverty by connecting them to the global supply chains they participate in and the brands, organizations, and governments that power them.
UNGA Events: Check out all the amazing events happening around the UNGA Assembly in New York City! Many of them are public, so if you have time, we definitely recommend checking them out.
How to Build a Global Community in a World of Nationalism?: What could globalists learn from the powerful sense of belonging that nationalism has created? Faced with the injustices of the world's economic and political system, what should a responsible globalist do?
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