Marcos Vercelli-Forster

🌱 Transforming Lives with Climate-Resilient Irrigation 🌍 Agriculture uses 70% of global freshwater and is a significant methane producer. But food demand is expected to increase by 50% compared to 2010 levels to feed 10 billion people. How do we deal with that? Climate-resilient irrigation more than doubles productivity compared to rain-fed agriculture and helps farmers produce more from less—less land and less water. Some interesting examples from the story below: - Rice farming in Vietnam: Instead of constantly flooding their fields, farmers use the Alternate Wetting and Drying technique, intermittently drying out the fields because plant roots have enough water from earlier flooding. Sensors monitor water levels every five minutes, and a smartphone application alerts farmers to stop or restart watering, optimizing the amount of water used with the click of a button. - Sahel Irrigation Initiative: The project is funding irrigation systems such as drip and spray irrigation, solar water pumping, and collection of surface water. - Increased transparency and holding service providers accountable in Indonesia: by developing irrigation service agreements (which define the responsibilities of service providers, water delivery, maintenance of canals, and procedures during water shortages), the quality of service delivery and water use efficiency have improved. The World Bank Group supports these advancements, securing food and water for future generations. For those curious of reading more, you can find the full story below 🌾💧 #Sustainability #ClimateAction #Irrigation #Agriculture #WorldBank

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I feel an immense sense of excitement and privilege to support the 10 ventures selected for ❌⭕️ Amsterdam Circular Edition 3, focusing on organic residual flows and circular food chains 🍄🪱 We are building a circular chain accelerator – what we call a circulator – to drive systemic change across industrial supply chains. Can founders play a leading role in transforming their chain? These innovative 'scaleouts' are set to accelerate circular chains, contributing to the City of Amsterdam's mission to halve its raw material use by 2030. 🥁 Congratulations to: - Alex in Wonderland: Offering healthy, environmentally friendly catering via smart fridges around town - Circulair Hout Centrum: Upcycling and recycling used wood with a focus on construction - De Tweede Jeugd: Turning discarded bread into delicious toasties - Droppie: Innovating a brick-and-click recyclable "waste" deposit and return system for consumers - Food for Skin | B Corp : Creating skincare products from real, "ugly" fruits - Grow It Away: Providing organic waste pick-up and composting subscription services - MycoFarming®: Utilizing biological systems to break down and collect nutrients from water bodies - Primal Soles: Crafting slippers and insoles from sustainable cork - Unwaste.: Transforming coffee grounds and orange peel into soap and shampoo bars - Veza: Enabling "Buy Now, Pay Later" for produce wholesalers, with a focus on ugly fruits and vegetables 🚀 The founders will receive tailored support, access to chain financing opportunities, and valuable connections to strengthen their circular chains. 👀 Stay tuned as the founders embark on an exciting journey towards a circular future! 🌱 Amsterdam Circular in partnership with AMS Institute, City of Amsterdam, CiSe Network, Harald Friedl, Invest-NL #CircularEconomy #AmsterdamCircular #Sustainability #Amsterdam #CircularValueChain

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The best way to learn is by observing others. #Sustainability is about sharing information and using that information for the common progress and well-being. Benchmarking helps us all to put things in the right perspective.

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Scope 3 decarbonisation is impossible without collaboration + education. One of my favourite things about founding Trace is the collaboration that is always taking place. Not just between my co-founder Joanna, the team and I, but within the entire climate ecosystem. Almost every person I meet, whether it’s a sustainability leader, a customer or a fellow founder, is willing to share ideas and collaborate to solve problems faster. In my view, here are the top 4 opportunities for collaboration: 1️⃣ Supply chain emissions: Measuring and reducing supply chain emissions is the single biggest challenge for any company trying to reach net zero and there are tradeoffs with every approach. We use a combination of industry average emissions factors from our partners at FootprintLab and we use public sources like #sbti, #BCorp and companies' annual reports to assess their sustainability credentials. We’re keeping an eye on Mantaray and givvable.com as potential data partners in the future. 2️⃣ Carbon + ESG: Measuring everything across ESG is complex - imagine trying to build a solution to measure and report diversity and inclusion in the workplace, carbon emissions, charity donations, recycling, the effectiveness of your governance structure and modern slavery…tricky right? At Trace we focus on carbon emissions and partner with businesses that look at ESG as a whole, such as Socialsuite and SDG Align. 3️⃣ Low carbon solutions for employees: 25% of our customers’ emissions come from their employees working from home and commuting, so collaborating with solutions to help employees decarbonise is essential. We love evee, RecycleSmart and Powershop Australia to name a few. 4️⃣ Software + education: Companies use #carbonaccounting software like Trace because it’s easy to use and the outputs are actionable, but they often lack confidence and skills to #decarbonise. We believe the key to net zero is to build a culture of sustainability and to educate everyone to be sustainability practitioners. Trace offers a range of climate training programmes plus we love Climate Fresk and WorkforClimate. Look at the all the smiling faces from our last Carbon Accounting Fellowship training session! #ourtrace #scope3 #measureyouremissions #climatepartnership #decarbonisation

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What does 'sustainable banking' really mean? Well... 🌱 We're purpose-driven: we work with organisations who do business like we do: with a clear social purpose and a clear financial plan to get there. 🌱 We're transparent: our commitment to openness isn't just a value; it's our way of life. You can learn about every loan and investment we make on our website. 🌱 We deliver impact: our 'minimum standards' aren't just rules; they ensure we're considering our impact on people and the environment in every decision we make. Curious to learn more? You can read about our minimum standards below 👇 https://lnkd.in/ewQBv6PH #SustainableFinance #SustainableLiving #GreenBank

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The Regeneration Field Guide: #regeneration101 #regeneration

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🌍 "It’s about putting impact at the heart of every decision"— Alasdair Maclay on GSG Impact's vision speaks to Impact-Investor.com ⬇️ 🎉 Celebrating a decade of impact: After ten years, GSG's evolution reflects a shift from solely focusing on impact investing to fostering impact economies worldwide. Reflecting on our journey, Alasdair highlights the inception from the G8 Taskforce to now engaging 44 national partners across diverse global 🌐contexts. This year, we are thrilled to welcome new national partners from Kenya 🇰🇪, Cambodia 🇰🇭, and Thailand 🇹🇭, extending our global network. Looking 🚀 ahead : As GSG Impact, we're setting our sights on overcoming key sector challenges such as the lack of incentives and know-how in achieving measurable impacts. With a focus on impact transparency, we're collaborating with bodies like the ISSB to harmonise standards that resonate across our network, especially in emerging markets. 🔗 Learn more about our vision and initiatives in Paula Garrido’s article: https://lnkd.in/dpJXdqj8 #ImpactInvesting #SustainableDevelopment #SocialImpact #emergingmarkets

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Thanks to Dick van Ommeren from Triodos Investment Management for this reflection - I'm happy to share a summary and quote Dick, because it's simply so true: "I believe that #impactinvesting is the true path to fostering genuine, transformative #change . Unlike #sustainable or #ESG investing, which often lacks depth and can mislead, #impact investing prioritises #intentional, positive outcomes. It's crucial to thoroughly understand where our #investments go and ensure they align with our #values and the future we want to create." It's high in time to shift our focus to making a real difference! #ImpactInvesting #SustainableFinance #PositiveChange #greendeal #transition #SFDR #esginvesting #change https://lnkd.in/gQf5C-YE

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Are we slowing down deforestation - well not really. Is this another area where pledges, targets and promises will turn out to lack a follow up delivery plan? Yes, probably. Forests are a significant ecological and economic resource that sequester carbon and provide habitat for wildlife and livelihoods for communities. Most people agree we need to halt and then reverse deforestation. Forests matter. This has been reflected in all sorts of pledges and commitments, the most high profile probably being from COP26 in 2021, where governments and companies promised to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030. That all seems pretty clear - as a rough rule of thumb this would require a 10% annual reduction to reach zero deforestation. And over the same period we want to restore some 350m hectares of lost and degraded forests. So how is it going? Sadly not well. A recent report out from the World Resources Institute shows just how far off-track we are. In fact, to quote the report "the global deforestation rate in 2023 was 2% higher than the baseline from 2018-2020". And thanks to Tim Dunn for highlighting this. Yesterday I wrote about how targets without a coherent delivery strategy are just goals. And how sometimes they are not even that. They are just a way of 'kicking the can down the road'. Making it someone else's problem, at some point out in the future, when action will take even more effort. As the report points out, we made all of the pledges in a vacuum - they were not backed up by the information we needed to monitor their delivery. In the years since these pledges were made, their impact has not been adequately monitored, leaving a lingering question of how much progress is being made. This equates to almost zero accountability. So the good news I guess is that with the publication of this report, and the work of others, we now have a benchmark. Yes, we need better monitoring systems, but this is a start. This is not a deforestation bashing story. Just because it's hard, doesn't mean we shouldn't make the effort. Examples such as the work to slow palm oil related deforestation are an example. Yes, its just slowing, not reversing. But my point is that it's taken a lot of effort by many organisations to get this moving. There is not a single silver bullet, just lots of hard work, by lots of people, on the detail. I am starting to feel that this is my message for 2024. The time of targets on their own is over. If we really want to make a difference we need a proper delivery plan - a strategy, with monitoring. This was the topic of a recent What Caught Our Eye for The Sustainable Investor. You can read it for free, with references and links to the reports, by following the link in my profile.

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Every year as a #BCorp we need to publish our impact report and this year we have decided to leave a few things out. ⚙You wont find anything about our operations 🦶You won't find anything about our carbon footprint 💩You won't find anything about offsetting (also sometimes known as "planting the forest fires of the future"🔥). ♻You won't find anything about recycling 🎁 You won't find anything about charitable gifting All of this is good stuff, but it is NOT IMPACT. It should just be business as normal. We can still build a future worth planning for, but it is going to take systemic change. So what is in there then? 🤔 We think that we have found a leverage point in 'the system' and we are going to get a 'proverbial crow bar' and use it to maximum effect. With luck and effort we might start a cascade of change. 👇 We are #financial planners, so we have written a methodology to change our industry. Imagine if there were 3.2 million #BetterConversations each year in the UK about the financial and physical risks posed by the climate and nature crisis. Aside from building the resilience of our clients, aside from allocating £Billions of capital towards an economy of the future and away from the extractive economy of the past...aside from all of that, it would enable a social shift. This is why I believe our noble financial planning profession is a lever to unlock system change and that is why the theme of this years impact report is 'System Thinking, System Doing'.

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