Laurie Lane-Zucker is Founder and CEO of Impact Entrepreneur, LLC, an impact economy business that hosts the Impact Entrepreneur Network — a large, global network of “systems-minded” entrepreneurs, investors and scholars of social and environmental innovation — and publishes Impact Entrepreneur Magazine. For over 30 years, Laurie has been a “pioneer” (Forbes) and recognized leader in sustainability, social enterprise, and impact investing. Laurie was the founding Executive Director of the international environmental organization, Orion Society, which publishes the celebrated Orion Magazine, as well as the founder of a global sustainability think-tank, the Triad Institute, and Hotfrog, a Founding B Corporation, GIIRS Pioneer Company, and the first company ever to complete an equity transaction on an impact investment exchange. Laurie is the bestselling and multiple award-winning publisher and editor of books and magazines on sustainability and social impact, and the author of numerous articles on entrepreneurship and impact investing.
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WASH Works 2023
On the sidelines of the U.N. Water Conference and as a continuation of the Devex WASH Works series, Devex will bring together leaders in person in New York City and online to discuss the ways in which water, sanitation, and hygiene efforts intersect with other development challenges, specifically in low- and middle-income countries.
Water is fundamental to life yet water issues also threaten the lives of billions worldwide. One in 3 people cannot access safe drinking water, 2 out of 5 people don’t have basic hand-washing facilities including soap and water, and more than 673 million people still practice open defecation. Floods and other water-related disasters account for 70% of all deaths related to natural disasters.
Access to WASH is a cross-cutting issue impacting numerous SDGs. Through insightful interviews and provocative debate, Devex reporters will dig into how water affects health, food, climate, gender, finance, and what the broader global development community needs to do to make urgent progress.
- Tags
- Conference, Webinar
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Defending ESG from the Trolls
Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) and the impact investing industry has recently been subjected to a barrage of verbal attacks and state bans. A Florida law passed in 2022, for example, currently prevents the state’s pension funds managers from considering ESG criteria. A host of politicians, including former Vice President Mike Pence and Florida Governor Rick Desantis have publicly trolled ESG as “woke capitalism.”
Despite the attacks, demand for ESG investing has become a dominant force that markets cannot ignore. In their annual Report on US Sustainable Investing Trends, the Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investing, known as US SIF, calculated sustainable investment assets under management to be $8.4 trillion in 2022. Growing numbers of investors are seeking sustainable investment opportunities that integrate environmental, social, and governance factors, despite the efforts of divisive trolls who often seem to be attacking ESG for their own political gain.
Stephanie Cohn Rupp, a Board Director at US SIF who has spent the last two decades of her career focused on economic development, global Impact, and ESG investing, thinks that these attacks demonstrate a fundamental misunderstanding of ESG and ignorance of the potential risks for investors and politicians who dismiss it. Cohn Rupp has been working to get out the message that ESG is not an ideology, it is a lens applied to investment due diligence that integrates real world impacts.
In this live fireside chat and audience Q&A, Impact Entrepreneur’s Laurie Lane-Zucker welcomes Stephanie Cohn Rupp, CEO of Veris Wealth Partners – a wealth management firm founded with a 100% focus on impact and ESG investing – for a discussion about the realities of ESG and how each of us can help defend ESG from the trolls.
Featured Guest:Stephanie Cohn Rupp is a Partner and Chief Executive Officer with more than 20 years of global impact investing experience. During her career, Stephanie has focused on building scalable, profitable, sustainable businesses. Based in Denver, she helps lead the firm’s impact wealth management growth strategies, financial performance and client experience.
Before joining Veris, Stephanie was Managing Director and Partner, Head of Impact Investing, at Tiedemann Advisors, where she served clients as a wealth advisor and led the development of the impact investing platform and impact client experience. Prior to that, she was CEO of Toniic, a global community of impact investors which she grew tenfold. Previously, Stephanie held globally focused investment roles at Omidyar Network, PlaNet Finance, UBS, The World Bank and building greenfield micro-finance institutions financed by USAID.
Stephanie is a Board Director of the US Sustainable Investment Forum, a member of the ImpactAssets 50 Review Committee and an advisory board member to Paris-based Investisseurs et Partenaires’ investment fund for Education in Africa.
She earned a Master of Public Administration from the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government and a Master of Science from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is a French and U.S. binational and co-authored The ImpactAssets Handbook in 2017 with Jed Emerson.
Host:Time: 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM EST
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- Webinar
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ANDE: Digitalizing Entrepreneur Support in Africa – Challenges and Opportunities
As the pandemic and government lockdowns forced entrepreneur support organizations to transition into offering many of their services virtually, ANDE pivoted to gather evidence on evaluating the positives and negatives of the digital transition. We recently published a research report “Going Virtual: Exploring the Value of Digital Entrepreneur Support in Africa” in English and French with generous support from Make-IT in Africa, a project implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and are organizing a dissemination event to share its key findings addressing the following questions:
•How many organizations adopted virtual programming?
•What other changes followed suit alongside virtual programming?
•What are the key challenges and advantages of virtual/hybrid support programs?
•Were entrepreneurs satisfied with programs when they were offered virtually?
•What factors are associated with satisfaction levels?
This workshop also features a panel discussion between Mpho Munyai at Zevoli Growth Partners and Lisa Kimondo at African Managers Institute to discuss what the findings mean for the sector.
For all questions related to this event, please reach out to Fernando Almaguer at fernando.almaguer@aspeninstitute.org
We look forward to your attendance!
Time: 8:00 AM- Tags
- Webinar
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730 3rd Ave 730 3rd Avenue New York, NY 10017 - 1 DayThursday
March 23
2023Scaling up Market-Based WASH: Achievements and Challenges
About this event
All UN Water Conference participants are invited to join PSI and the Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health for a breakfast session to learn how Ethiopia is successfully integrating the private sector into the sanitation service delivery model.
In this official UN Water Conference side event, speakers from PSI, USAID, and the Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health will showcase best practices and lessons learned from market-based WASH interventions and lead conversations that address:
• How might market-based approaches help governments achieve their WASH goals?
• How can countries’ governments and private sector entities gain ownership over market-based frameworks?
Please register by 20 March to confirm your participation.
Time: 8:00 – 9:30 AM EDT- Tags
- Conference
