Module 2: A case for impact, your role in the change & emerging alternatives

Are we ready for a change?

Module 2 is all about the alternatives to our current, conventional financial system. What's in our toolbox that can help us to drive change in different contexts? What are approaches to 'impact' that really make a difference? From creating a map of alternatives to diving deeper into a few great examples and truly understanding the nature of impact investing - we hope this module will give you a taste of what’s possible & out there already.

Recommended Resources

• Economics is for everyone, Ha-Joon Chang,2016 (video, 12 mins)

• River Charters, Net Zero Cities and BioRegional Banks: Creating a Life-Ennobling Economic System with Emily Harris of Dark Matter Labs, Accidental Gods Podcast (1 hr)

• “The War on Cash with Brett Scott”, Upstream Podcast, 2022, (podcast conversation) (1 hr 6 min)

• “How to Save the Planet: Degrowth vs. Green Growth” Jason Hickel, Kate Raworth, Samuel Fankhauser 2022 (video) (93 minutes)

• “The Serviceberry: An Economy of Abundance,” Robin Wall Kimmerer,2022, (essay / audio, 44 min)

Additional resources

Post Capitalist Philanthropy: Healing Wealth in the Time of Collapse - Alnoor Ladha & Lynn Murphy (book)

🎥 Related sessions & offerings:

WEEK 4

Thu, 26.09 - Community Call 4: Place-based Transitions, Novel Asset Classes, and Bioregional Financing Facilities with Leon Seefeld of Dark Matter Labs and Ashoka Netherlands

WEEK 5

Thu, 03.10- Community Call 5: Mapping Emerging Alternative Economic & Monetary Systems - The role of impact investing & your role in the change

Mon, 30.09 - Skill Session - Shareholder Advocacy with Trillium Asset Management Lisa Hayles

Tue, 01.10 - Skill Session - Risk in the Financial System with David Carlin of Cambrium and former head of risk at the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI)

WEEK 6 Thu, 10.10 - Community Call 6: Economy for the Common Good - How to tend better local realities for all in the cracks of a fractured system with Gesellschaft für Gemeinwohl

Tue, 08.10 - Skill Session - Our Planet: Too Big to Fail - Movie Screening - with oikos International to discuss financial change with the support of WWF and Aviva Investors

Wed, 09.10 - Skill Session - Impact Measurement and Management with Fernando Morales of Builders Vision

Week 4: Exploring new Paradigms of Finance - Bioregional Finance

Week 5: Mapping Emerging Alternative Economic & Monetary Systems

Week 6: Making Economies for the Common Good a Local Reality

Check out the following past sessions from our partner organizations doing great work to create alternative realities for our financial system in the here and now. Feel free to follow & get in touch with them as they would love to meet our cohort of future impact leaders.

Just Money: Banking as if Society Mattered - MIT/Presencing Institute

📹 Just Money and Ego to Ecosystem - with Katrin Kaufer (45 min)

Dr. Katrin Kaufer is a Lecturer and Program Director at MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning and Director of the Presencing Institute (https://www.presencing.org). Her work includes research focused on leadership, organizational change, values-based banking as well as on participatory action research. Her 2013 book co-authored with Otto Scharmer is titled “Leading from the Emerging Future: From Ego-system to Eco-system Economies”. In 2021 she published: “Just Money. Mission-based banking and the future of finance.” (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2021).

The Just Money Program runs every year from July to November in partnership with MITx. - What is the role of a bank in producing societal well-being? This program looks into banks that operate differently, namely, “just banks" that use capital and finance as a tool to produce positive social, environmental, and economic change. No previous knowledge of finance or banking is needed to take this course.

⛵ https://www.u-school.org/programs#just-money-programs and here https://mitxonline.mit.edu/courses/course-v1:MITxT+11.405x/

Institute for Social Banking

📹 Investing for Society - with the Institute for Social Banking's Chai Locher

Chai Locher, director at the Institute for Social Banking, shares about the institute's work to promote and advance the concept of social banking. This is an approach to banking that prioritizes social and environmental goals alongside financial sustainability. Chai Locher talks about the different initiatives and data in the space of social banking and will highlight the ISB's education and training, research, networking, and advocacy. The institute serves as a platform for education, research, and networking within the field of social banking.

The Global Alliance on Banking Values

📹 Banking with Values - from the GABV's Tytti Kaasinen

The Global Alliance on Banking Values is a network of banks who advocate for members to integrate sustainable banking values into their business models. Tytti Kaasinen, the new head of research and impact metrics at GABV also shared about their work with the Leadership Academy program in this call.

Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ)

Yuki Yasui, APAC Managing Director joined us for this presentation on GFANZ and the work it does to inspire change in some of the largest organizations globally. Learn more about the GFANZ here - gfanzero.com/.

📹 Making Change Happen Globally with GFANZ - Fellow Call

📹 GFANZ' mission as a network of investor networks and their work to inspire action to tackle climate change - Watch It Here.

📹 Sustainability Perspectives from Asia While Yuki was at the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), she gave an overview of how sustainable finance has progressed in Asia, including some case studies specifically about Mongolia, Japan, and China. She highlighted the fact that Asia is where we have the highest risks (such as physical changes in climate) yet also opportunities for sustainable investments. Check out the interview here. -