YouSaid · the spoken record

Mindy Lubber

lines on the record: 38
first: 2019-12-15
most recent: 2019-12-15
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Range of topics and range of issues. And just one example, they said, you know, we're really excited about moving to much more sustainable packaging. We have a great supplier. We'll buy everything they make, but they really need financing to build a plant. Is there a way you can help? Earlier that day, I had a conversation with our merchant bank who wanted to share research on seeing alternative packaging as a really exciting growth area. They've made some investments and they want to make more. Separately, this idea of using corporate offtakes to make transactions financeable and financeable at scale, I talked about Northvolt earlier. That's the way our U.S. Renewable Power Group works, sort of harnessing the power of the corporate offtaker. And so to get to sit down and connect those dots, the client doesn't necessarily need to know all those different things going on, but we do. And to be able to sit down, understand their need, and bring that together. And that's a microcosm, but I think we found with some of these clients, we have five, six, even seven different sustainable finance work streams going on that cover a range of issues. And that ability to take what can feel like a fragmented”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“One thing that I've been really excited about, and this is partially a lens that gave rise to what I do and partially an engine for carrying it forward, is you've talked and heard about other folks here talking about this sort of one Goldman Sachs idea. Clients shouldn't have to get a PhD in Goldman Sachs to get the benefits of our best thinking. This is a topic that has been extremely conducive to that, is sitting down with large clients and saying, how can we help? This is a top of mind issue. How can we help? And it doesn't matter which division, which function, which product, which service, which anything. What do you need? But what we found is there's been a high level of engagement with these clients. And what emerges from it is usually a work plan. We'll go through the range of conversations and say, yes, that one, no that one, tell me more about this and here too you haven't mentioned. And we'll effectively have a work plan that we project manage, this ability to help clients project manage across these important issues and transitions with the variety of functions and capabilities we have affirmed doing. I mean, I was talking to a senior executive at a large company the other day.”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Number two let's ground it in a thesis. The thesis for us is simple. All of these tools are really only useful to the degree they do some combination of three things. Is this a way to manage risk? Is this a way to find growth opportunities that may not be fully appreciated by the market? Or is it a way to drive operational efficiency and resilience? So have a thesis of what are the levers I can use to try to drive value in my portfolio over time. Number two. Number three, find actionable ways to get started. Find these ways to take measured experiments. It doesn't have to be all or nothing. It doesn't need to be the whole portfolio, but find a way to get started. And then finally four, reflect, and iterate, both on your own experience and how the field is developing. So the question in some ways is always the same. Really some variation of, okay, this all makes sense, but how do I get started? And the process at a generic level is the same. Clear the underbrush, have a clear thesis, find an entry point and evolve over time, but it manifests itself quite differently in these different institutions.”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It all comes down to forms of really one question. What do I do? Awareness is high, interest is high, appreciation for the potential importance is high, but I think it can be a little overwhelming, a little paralyzing. Think about climate risk. Between physical change policy, change, market change, there'd be significant impacts across a wide variety of assets in the decades to come. However, which of those things will happen when, where, how, and how does that relate to current market pricing is a difficult question. So how do you balance an appreciation for the significance of a problem, an understanding of its complexity, and find a way to roll up your sleeves and get started? I mean, earlier today, I was talking to someone at a large sovereign wealth fund. That's what they're wrestling with. We know it's going to be big. We know it matters. We know it's going to affect a lot of things, but I got to have a way to get started. So a lot of our work is spent really doing a couple things. Number one, clear the underbrush. If there's this ideological underbrush that either makes people too apt to love it or hate it, let's get that out of the way. Let's have an investing conversation number one.”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You talk to a lot of smart investors all over the world, in Europe, Asia, the US, elsewhere. What's one big question or is there one big question that you're getting from those investors about this base?”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Know, in our world, you might call that greening manufacturing companies. And they said, well, we don't. And I think there is this hangover of thinking, you know, this is what the well-intentioned people trying to learn Excel are asking me to do. This is not a real investment discipline. Sort of undoing that cognitive bias, people often realize they're doing a lot more of it than what usually follows, oh, but that's just smart investing. And eventually a lot of conversations I say, you're not allowed to say anything that's smart investing doesn't count. You can't define the tautology against me.”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“When you get to the investing question, you get past that. We spend a lot of time telling people we understand there may have been hype, enthusiasm, good news, bad news in the past. Frankly, we'll acknowledge that, but let's move on. Let's look at the actual investment merits of this question. And when you get into it, what I invariably find, I don't think I have found a single investor yet we've worked with, that the more we talk about this doesn't have one little moment of, oh, I didn't know that was ESG. So we were talking to a manager that said, we don't do any ESG. We said, well, what do you do? And they said, the largest area of active risk was investing in middle market European industrial companies because what they found is that a lot of it had outdated manufacturing, a little bit of CapEx to modernize their manufacturing could make it much more efficient, save energy, save water, less waste. And it turns out if they marketed those efficiency trades in small business and consumer markets in Northern Europe, they could command a small price premium. So they got kind of a double whammy benefit to their margins. And I sort of said,”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We'd like to think of it as having a third hand. For us, finding big attractive growth sectors, other sources of insight into risk that's going to affect almost all companies, opportunity, ways to be more efficient, that makes sense to us. And I think there's a little bit of an old way of thinking of take a universe, take a hatchet, remove some names, and just get back to your job. That's not what this really is. It's rooted in this old view. But I think there is this bigger issue of, I like to say I'm in the cognitive bias business. And what I mean by that is often people are too prone to love this or too prone to hate it. Enthusiasts think this is important. It's the greatest thing since sliced organic whole wheat artisanal bread. Sprinkle it on top of any.”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Two main things of this. I think number one, I would be curious to find the investor who looks at every single security on the face of the planet. You got to focus somewhere, right? You have to make choices arguably where you can build a research edge, an insight edge. You got to pick somewhere you're going to focus that you think your focus is going to bear fruit. So I think there's a little bit of a myth of the people who seamlessly choose from every potential security every single moment in time. I'm not sure I've quite found that person or maybe that computer. However, I think the other big thing here, and it dovetails to a deeper issue, is historically limiting the universe was kind of all there was in this space. Early efforts, faith-based negative screening, socially responsible investing, the idea of kind of what not to own. And that has become so ingrained in people's head of what this is. I remember a colleague and I were being interviewed by a journalist once, and at one point they said, I just don't understand with ESG, how can you expect an investor to perform with one hand tied behind your back? And my colleague responded a moment. She said,”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Income manager, and you asked how they decide what securities to buy, and they said, I read a rating agency report. You'd say, and it's great to use external inputs, but those are inputs, those are not answers. The same thing is true here, which is it's great to buy external data, other reports, other research projects, but if this is important, if this is material, if this is part of how you were a good steward of assets, you need to have your own story to tell in a fact-based way. And I think just saying, ah, I just relied on someone else is increasingly not going to be a sufficient answer.”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Not for all companies, sector by sector, subsector by subsector, and try to drive a recognition of what those things are, and coherent reporting around those things. GCAM, when we engage, we just published our annual engagement report, we really push for better disclosure on fewer things that matter more. Our GS Sustained Research colleagues have done a great job at really trying to hone in on what are the things that matter for their sectors. And so I think it's something we see where the world is going, and we're trying to help it get there, because at the end of the day, capital markets work better with good data. More data is not necessarily better. What we need is better data on fewer things that matter more. And I think that helps overcome these issues where if we solve for the investment question, arming good investors with better data who may make different choices, but they can have transparency and really a common framework from which to work, that makes sense. The kind of cul-de-sac choices that's been made, I think, is when you solve for the label, sometimes that becomes the answer. And the metaphor we use is if you were doing due diligence on a fixed”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“On something that says it's ESG. And I think you mentioned some of the issues. This is sort of well studied. I think sometimes these are a little overly dependent on formalisms around policies and disclosures versus performance. And there's a proliferation. When I talk to people across the spectrum, nobody is happy with the current state of affairs, which is companies feel like they're beset by many people on all sides with more requests for more things that arguably don't matter a lot. Investors are overwhelmed with a whole lot of noise and not a lot of signal and don't know quite what to do with it. Here's the question. How do we get to a world that I think would be better for everyone? A world where we have better data on fewer things that matter more. I think everyone would agree that's a better place to be. The question is, how do we get there? And I think this is something we've been taking an active focus in and really pushing on this where we can. We were the first U.S. bank to report using SASB, the sustainability accounting standards board. That's really SASBI's mission is. How do we figure out what's financially material?”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“If I knew more about hockey, I would probably say we're in the middle of the second period of a three period game. Early on, this was a topic that was of interest, but frankly people didn't really have to address it. It seemed peripheral, sort of ESG, what are you doing? How do I measure it? How's my portfolio look? How's my company perform? That time is over. Everyone needs an ESG story and an ESG answer. That hasn't increasingly become apparent. However, what's happened is in some cases people have really focused on solving for having an answer versus solving for the real investment question. The investment question is how do I navigate a world that's changing, whether I'm a corporate leader, I'm an asset owner, or an asset manager? That's the real question. And as with any investment question, it's hard. It takes work. It takes scrutiny. It takes perception. It takes insight. It takes wisdom. However, I think an enthusiasm to solve for the labeling question has almost resulted in a little bit of a potential cul-de-sac here, where a lot of work put into how do I put a stand.”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I couldn't agree more. I saw the chairman of a big traditional oil company in Europe, and they were 100% focused on these transitional issues. What about data? One of the issues for this world has been that the early metrics and definitions weren't that robust. They were very bespoke, and they changed depending on where you were and what they look like. It's a little soft sometimes the measures. How has that evolving and how is that going to improve so that we can really see the accountability and delivering on some of the promises that have been made?”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Creates risks for some business models. This idea of all of these drivers, there are opportunities for some people, their risks for others, and their efficiency gains for others, leveraging these as tools are important to all of our clients. That's one of the things that often gets missed out is once again, people think about this as a segmented little field. It's just off here in the corner. These are broad, large chunks of our economy that are fundamentally changing in the decades ahead. And once again, those changes need a banker, they need an investor, they need an advisor.”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“At the end of the day, and we spent a lot of time since the launch of SFG talking to clients across a wide variety of sectors, and interesting, seeing who wants to talk to us. Frankly, the corporate climate's most interested in getting our guidance, our help, our advice, are from a lot of those legacy sectors because this question of transition isn't just about the pure plays creating new innovative solutions. Unbelievably important. We do a lot of that. But this is about broad bases of the economy driving to really important goals in terms of climate transition and inclusive growth. That's an area where we're really going to have to earn our keep is helping those companies that have a legacy business, have a business model, but they're getting these same questions. They're getting pressures from shareholders, from customers, from employees, from stakeholders. And what they want, if they want advice, they want help. They want people to help them navigate that transition because rapid growth of renewable power creates opportunities in the renewable power space. It creates opportunities to save money for some companies.”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We obviously hear gomen have clients that aren't in these nine themes as broad as they are that you outlined, and some of them may seem to be pulling in a different direction, depending on the theme. What about those kinds of clients, legacy clients, as it were?”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And varied through small efforts, and there's a lot of wonderful work going out there that's going to continue to go on. One of the things we think about is where does our scale not just matter, but where is it required? That type of transaction needs scale to get there. The same thing in middle market renewable power. At the end of the day, corporations in the U.S. want to get on-site renewable power. They want highly flexible energy resources, but they want someone that has some scale and heft that's going to be around for a while. So we went, saw a thesis, saw an opportunity, and built about a 30-person team, about a $2 billion balance sheet, and in less than three years have become one of the, if not the largest owner of distributed solar assets in the U.S. That's a market where people need scale. They need heft. And so that question of if it's good business, what are you bringing to the table is a very fair one and a good one. And frankly, one that doesn't get asked enough.”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Just an idea. Now they have over six gigawatts of power, or the largest solar developer in India have raised over a billion and a half dollars. That ability to sort of see where this is going, see the direction of travel, and invest early, but frankly with some real heft and real scale. That's number two. Number three, I'd like to call it as just sweat, this ability to sort of be a little more creative and put some work into putting the building blocks together. So a merchant bank worked with a company called Northvolt to finance the giga factory in Europe. Ultimately, to bring down the cost of electric vehicles, ultimately it comes down to batteries. Batteries need scale. We have a chicken egg problem. Until costs are lower and I have the volume of demand, how can I build them at the scale that makes it all work? And so we worked with Volkswagen and others to figure out, is there someone that's going to buy these batteries? Is there someone who's going to make it? It suddenly take something and makes it financeable. And it's something financeable that needs to be financed at scale. This gets back to the last rule. There's some areas in impact where small is beautiful. We need nimbleness, innovation.”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“their interest rate ratchets up by a quarter of a percent. And so that ability to go out to the market, raise billions of dollars of capital, get a little bit of a price break from the market because seeing that target, seeing that objective, but having that accountability on the back end. Because one of the big issues here is this isn't just about investing in these nine growing themes. This is about transitioning an entire economy. That transition needs to be banked and it needs the innovation and the creativity that bankers can bring to it. So one thing we can bring is that's a good investment. It's good for the company. It's good for investors. So back to does it pencil? It absolutely pencils. What do we bring to the table? Ingenuity and sweat. I think the second thing there is foresight. Seeing something just a little bit before it's there. So our merchant bank saw a tremendously growing opportunity in solar power in India, and they invested a very small team, renew power, when they had zero megawatts of power in the ground.”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Areas where this shows up. What are we bringing to the table? Number one, sometimes innovation. Sometimes it's not just executing a transaction that's out there. It's what's the transaction of tomorrow. So this SDG-linked bond we did with the Italian utility in L is a really great example of that, which is green bonds have been a good growing market. It's good, but it has some complexity of issuance. You have to cordon off the proceeds. And it's a little more tied to inputs in terms of money going in as opposed to outputs the results. So our team worked with Annelle and others to really come up with what is a more aligned, accountable structure that helps them accomplish what they really want to accomplish, which is raise capital directly aligned with their business goals of transitioning the fundamental core of their business towards renewables. And so the way the security works is general corporate use of proceeds, easy to issue, easy to issue at scale, affordable capital to finance their business, but it's accountable. It has teeth, which is if they don't reach their goals, a 55% renewable power by the end of 2020.”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We spent a lot of time thinking about this, and this is we're having a core of clients that are passionate about these issues, asking a lot of questions helps give us a real perspective on how to answer it with real authenticity and depth. Because first of all, it's not bad if it's good business, right? At the end of the day, this isn't going to go very far very fast if it's not good business, if the business case doesn't work out. However, what do we bring to bear? What we bring to bear is the combination of a couple things. That view that this is where the world is going, which means we can justify leaning into this. I like to say this work is all about getting the right degree of lean. If you stand straight up and down and just execute what's in front of you, you're not going to be getting anything very interesting. You're not going to generate comparative advantage. You're not going to be particularly helpful to the clients or the world. If you lean too far forward with enthusiasm, you're going to make mistakes fall down and you're going to create the next cautionary tale. So getting that right degree of lean. So what's different? Where can we simultaneously do something that's good business for our clients and for ourselves but make a difference? And I'd say there are really four main”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Four walls, let's find it and put it together. If it doesn't, let's go get it. Let's have expertise on the things that matter. Number two, let's have capabilities do something with that knowledge. It's all well and good to know something, but we need to build to do something. Number three, let's deliver that to clients in a coherent, cohesive way. And if we do that, hopefully that will create a cycle that perpetuates itself. If you do good work, you'll become known for it, which means you earn the right to do more good work. But I think this experience of having little 15 person company running a large growing unit within Goldman Sachs and now really getting to sort of drink from the fire hose, Goldman Sachs sits at the center of markets and looking out across corporate executives, asset owners, asset managers, policymakers. That view is both inspiring in terms of the engagement, the momentum around this, but daunting. I mean, there's a lot of work to do, there's a lot of wood to chop.”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Say, do you have a separate group doing this, or do you integrate it? And we said yes. We called it a both and model, which is if you tell an existing talented staff to add something to their day job, that's unrealistic. On the other hand, if you have a totally divorced from the business, that's irrelevant. So how do you have the extra oomph of resources focused and specialization, but the goal to draw it from and weave it into the businesses not to separate? So that model worked well. So at the same time, these questions were coming up all over. Our largest clients around the world were constantly bringing this up as a top-of-mind issue, not just for investment management, but for securities, for investment banking. It was coming up in investments our merchant bank was making. And the question is what to do about it. In some ways, at the end of the day, the goal is let's focus on content knowledge and expertise. Let's not focus on products. Let's not focus on announcements. Let's not focus on marketing. Let's really focus on what we need to do, which is really three things. And you mentioned this at the beginning. Number one, let's have the expertise and knowledge. And if it exists somewhere in these metaphors,”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Number one, how do our core investors get better at doing this as part of their day job? How do we partner with clients that want something a little more, that want to lean into this from a research perspective, figure out not just what today's practice is, but next practice? That's really our kind of shared RNG agenda. And how do we talk to clients differently? Not to show up with a product or pitch, but to say, how can we help you? We can talk across asset classes, publics to privates, equity to debt, impact to ESG. We work with global insurers, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, foundations, family offices. We both work with our own investors and we allocate to other investors who don't care Goldman Sachs business cards to be able to take that perspective and say, how can we help? So that worked pretty well, both in a sign of that being a good model where the world is going. The end of 2015, the year the acquisition, we had $3 billion under management. 2016, it was a little over $6 billion. 2017, a little over $11. 2018, a little over 17, and now it's about $55 billion in Dedicated ESG impact assets. So continue to grow and a sign that we were sort of on to something in terms of that model.”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Goldman Sachs got to know us through some work. We thought they were going to become another client. Very smart, asked really good questions. We were excited. But came back instead of sending us our signed contract with the rather surprising question of, we have this wacky idea and wondered what you might think about it. But what if we were to buy you? So I was having my first cup of morning coffee. I'd just gotten packed from a week living out of the back of a camper van with my family on the Lost Coast of California. And instead of doing a coffee spit, I just said, I'd love to hear more about your thinking. And the answer in some ways is emblematic of where we are now. The answer was, look, this is now important as an investor for our clients, which means we need to be excellent. And at that point, they said, we're fine. We have lots of good pockets of work, but if we want to get from fine to excellent, we really got to ramp up our efforts. We need to invest in this in a very muscular, robust way. Then as things grew, what we found is this organization is very nimble and very dynamic. And so as we started working really on three things.”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think I'm an unexpected and an unlikely case study in all of this. I sometimes call myself the Forest Gump of impact investing. Back in 2007, I co-founded imprint capital along with Taylor Jordan. We didn't even know we were starting a business. We knew we had a small set of clients that wanted to take all these ideas. And this field has always had all of ideas. It hasn't always had execution. And our focus was not on aspiration. It was on execution. Let's work with clients. Let's see if we can roll up our sleeves and implement these ideas. How do I align portfolios with where the world is going and do it in a way that pass muster from a financial perspective, but also from an impact perspective? Our little two-person company slowly grew to weary a little 15-person company. We managed about 550 million dollars in assets. We'd worked with a lot of large U.S. foundations. So our little company focused on really just understanding this emerging world, started getting hired by financial institutions, started spending a lot more time in New York with people that dressed a little better than I did.”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So sometimes we talk about these trends in the abstract, but it always is helpful to focus on the personal. Talk a little bit about the way you see it through your own lens, your transition here at the firm has sort of reflected some of these changes. So talk about what you originally came here to do and what you're doing today.”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“China's imports of plastic waste have declined by over ninety five percent in three years. You have governments getting in the game. Asset owners, you have asset owners coming together individually and collectively in groups like the Climate Action 100 Plus, really saying, look, we see the world moving in a direction and we want to use our power, influence our dollars in a different way. Companies. Companies themselves accounted for over a quarter of the new renewable power generation last year. Companies are getting in the game in a different way, not just for themselves, but even up and down their supply chain, working whether it's on sustainability goals, community engagement goals, diverse goals. And so I think the time is fundamentally different because urgency is real and visible and really in our faces in a fundamentally different way than it has been. But frankly, without the fact that the business case is now there in a different way, I don't think we'd be able to make the same kind of commitment.”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Fundamentally, it's not just the urgency, but it's the opportunity. The business case is better than ever. And it's coming from a wide variety of angles. People talk a lot about millennials want to invest differently. That's true. I think on the last podcast I jokingly said 127% of millennials want to invest with an ESG lens. That may have risen to 134% at this point. But what people are missing are other angles of this. Employees, I was talking to the CFO of a large company the other day, and they said, look, my number one, two, and three ESG issues are, if I can't show a young talented mobile workforce that could pick from a litter of great employment opportunities, if I can't show them what we do is important to the world and we do it in a values-oriented way, they're not going to come work here. Employees are engaging with their companies in a fundamentally different way around this. Policymakers, the way they're getting in the game, look at the European Sustainable Finance Taxonomy, look at China from a policy perspective deciding they don't want our plastic waste.”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Really, we're seeing two things, and even talking to senior leaders around the firm, what's emerged is number one, the urgency of some of these issues is at a fundamentally different place than it's been, and whether it's physical climate risk and what we're seeing in terms of 80% more extreme precipitation days than we had two decades ago. I lived in Northern California, whether it's the power outages there and the fact that half my neighbors can't get property and casualty insurance, sort of the growing urgency around that, as well as social issues we see percolating up around the world. So it's very top of mind, it's very present, the urgency of these issues. That alone, frankly, would be important, but arguably not enough for what we're looking at doing is leaning our full muscle into these issues. What's also changed is the business case is fundamentally better than it's ever been. If you look at the cost of renewables relative to other types of power, fundamentally different. If you look at the economics of serving unserved markets, trying to really focus not just in addition to providing better care, but better health. If you look at all of these issues,”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Our products and services to truly have the excellence at helping clients navigate this and navigating with their own capital, that focus on having excellence in these core themes, the $750 billion will almost logically follow from that. If we're right about our view of where the world is going and we execute well on that desire to be best in class at this, the $750 billion, it's not chump change, so I don't want to make it seem like an afterthought, but really at the end of the day, that will be a result of executing well against this opportunity, not really an end unto itself.”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This is actually about these twin themes around inclusive growth in climate transition. It's holistic across nine core growth themes. We can talk a little bit more about, but I think its form is a little bit different. And those nine growth themes, this frankly is not focused on an external objective. It's not the UNSDGs. It's not one of the frameworks that's out there in the broad world. This is based on our own research over decades of work working with our colleagues. And so that second point of it's not siloed, it's holistic across the set of research-driven themes. The third thing, and people are going to probably comment on the size, $750 billion, it's a big number. It's probably the biggest target out there. But I would argue that the third thing is most important, and maybe the least noticed, but I think over time it's really going to pay off, is the focus is not on the $750 billion. The focus is on being excellent at this, having the expertise, the capabilities and delivering to clients across the firm, across our divisions, across”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Three main things that make this a little different. Because to your point, there are announcements and numbers and targets left, right, and center my news feed is full of them. Number one, where this is coming from, this is grounded, frankly, not in a commitment to something outside of us. This is grounded in a core view of where the world is going, a thesis, a research-driven view, almost a market call that fundamentally these questions of climate transition and inclusive growth are going to be central secular themes for the economy, for clients, and for ourselves. This is where the world is going. We sit at the center of markets. We see it, but we need to be ahead of that. We need to lean into that with the full muscle of our firm. This is not a peripheral target. This is not off to the side. This is fundamentally central. That's number one. Grounded in this core research-driven thesis of where the world is going. Two, partially because its form is a little different. We've had environmental targets. This is not just environmental target. Back in 2005, when we first really talked about the scientific consensus on climate change, we had our first environmental target. There are lots of those targets out there.”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You're hitting on, I think, what's one of the things that's really important. And I think the $750 billion may get a lot of attention as a headline number, but I think arguably this may be more significant over time, which is seeing these as two core secular trends that will affect the economy, our clients, and our business. That means we need to invest in the capabilities to be a strong, excellent, and capable around these as we would any other central topic, which could be technology, interest rates, any other thing of that kind of significance. And so the other commitment is that we're working to integrate expertise, capability, and delivery of that across our products and services across the divisions of the business so that any client can knock on our door and get the same expertise, insight, and help on these issues that they could expect on any of the other central issues that are top of mind for them.”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, the announcement had two core elements. The first is that we're making a commitment to invest or finance $750 billion of capital over the next 10 years across the two broad themes that we're seeing unfolding in the economy and nine specific themes within those. So the two broad themes are climate transition and inclusive growth. And underneath those, with under climate transition, we see things that you would expect to see, like clean energy, and things that you might not expect as much around things like waste in materials, ecosystem services. Inclusive growth looks at, frankly, how do we have growth that works better for more people, things like accessible, affordable education, accessible, affordable healthcare, investing in our communities.”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Now onto the sustainable finance portion of the episode. So Goldman Sachs just made a big announcement on the firm's sustainable goals over the next 10 years. To talk about that and respond to some skeptics in the space, we're joined by John Goldstein, head of Goldman Sachs Sustainable Finance Group, which is responsible for working across the firm to deepen our knowledge and grow our capabilities in relation to inclusive growth and climate transition. John, welcome to the program.”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Gini could officially globally, which provide long term indicators of inequality. And why I think that's important is we've seen a rise in support for the political extremes all around the globe in the last few years. And clearly this is a complicated issue, but it's driven in part by anger over the multi-year rising inequality, both social and economic, and it's been accentuated by technology and social media that have really made this inequality come to life for many people. And so I really expect this to remain a big focus for our clients and investors, both economically and socially.”
2019-12-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Is Sustainable Finance the Next Big Commercial Opportunity? · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT