Juneteenth declared a national holiday 5 years after Opal Lee, then 89 years old, walked from Ft Worth to Washington DC to advocate for this change.
LQBTQ+ Pride Month- Celebrating the nations first openly gay active NFL player.
Senators Whitehouse and Schatz introduce “The Save Our Future Act ...our bill will charge polluters for the harms they cause and redirect that revenue to the American families and communities that have for too long borne the brunt of climate change and air pollution, all while speeding the transition to a green economy and making the air safer to breathe,” said Senator Whitehouse.
United States Treasury awarded $1.25 billion to 863 Community Development Financial Institutions across the country to support economic relief in underserved communities affected by COVID-19. Every dollar injected into a CDFI catalyzes eight more dollars in private-sector investment, meaning that (it) might lead to an additional $10 billion in investment. USTreasury
THE ECONOMICS OF BIODIVERSITY The Dasgupta Review From UK Governemnt HM Treasury 14 June 2021 "Today, we ourselves, together with the livestock we rear for food, constitute 96% of the mass of all mammals on the planet. Only 4% is everything else – from elephants to badgers, from moose to monkeys. And 70% of all birds alive at this moment are poultry – mostly chickens for us to eat. We are destroying biodiversity, the very characteristic that until recently enabled the natural world to flourish so abundantly. If we continue this damage, whole ecosystems will collapse. That is now a real risk. Economics is a discipline that shapes decisions of the utmost consequence, and so matters to us all. The Dasgupta Review at last puts biodiversity at its core and provides the compass that we urgently need. In doing so, it shows us how, by bringing economics and ecology together, we can help save the natural world at what may be the last minute – and in doing so, save ourselves. David Attenborough
SOLUTIONS FOR SAVING BIODIVERSITY ️Address the Imbalance Between Our Demand and Nature’s Supply, and Increase Nature’s Supply Changing Our Measures of Economic Progress Transforming Our Institutions and Systems
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NYU Stern’s Center for Sustainable Business undertook a deeper dive and analyzed the individual credentials of the 1188 Fortune 100 board directors based on Bloomberg and company bios in 2019 (see box 1 on methodology), and found that 29% of (1188) directors had relevant ESG credentials. 29% seems like a decent showing, until we drill deeper and find that most of the experience is under the S; 21% of board members have relevant S experience, against 6% each for E and G (numbers are higher than 29% as some members had more than one credential). The “S” credentials were clustered around health and diversity issues.
PayPal deposits $135 million in financial institutions serving black and underserved communities
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Speaking of credit unions check out the Clean Energy Credit Union for all of those who want to put their money where there values are.
Take the next step beyond impact investing to systems change investing with 21st Century Investing.
Goodreads rates this one highly Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery by Mark Charles, Soong-Chan Rah
A special woman at the intersection of science and indigenous traditions
Robin Wall Kimmerer - author and Distinguished Teaching Professor and Director, Center for Native Peoples and the Environment. Bringing us in closer relationship to our land through science and indigenous knowledge
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June is a great month to set up the rest of the summer. Time to think about the books you want to read, time to be more deliberate about getting outside and enjoying the natural world we live in. Appreciate the other 4% of mammals that live on this planet with us. Can we make it a bit easier for them instead of harder to coexist. Gain perspective of others this month. According to Robin Wall Kimmerer in Braiding Sweetgrass "..in many indegienous languages, we use the same words to address the living world as we use for our family. Because they are family." In the Dasgupta Review " from the UK Treasury, "Correct economic reasoning is entangled with our values. Biodiversity does not only have intstrumental value, it also has existence and intrinsic value, perhaps even moral worth. Each of these senses is enriched when we recognise that we are embedded in Nature. To detach Nature from economic reasoning is to imply that we consider ourselves to be external to Nature. The fault is not economics; it lies in the way we have chosen to practise it." Have you looked into a local CDFI to invest some of your cash? How about a BIPOC owned bank? Are you happy with what is in your portfolio? How is your relationship withyour financial planner? Do they understand and put your values to work in your portfolio? This month we are highlighting our collection of providers for all that is Business+. Like last month think about those services and ask yourself, are any of them women, black, indigenous or LGBTQ owned. Are they socially responsible? Do the owners and the company values align with yours?
Providers
Business+ Accelerators/Aggregators/Incubators Building Materials Electronic Distribution Employee Benefits HR Consulting & Recruiting Industrial manufacturing IT Software & Web/Design Services Legal Machinery & Equipment Marketing & Communication Services Merchant Services Non-Profit Consulting & Fundraising Office Products & Printing Other Other- Business Products Print Publications Product Ratings Rental Services Research & Design Do you interact with any of these types of providers? Are you wondering how can I find one that aligns with my values and things I care about? Well, they exist and we can help you find them.
If you want to learn more about socially responsible providers of these services and more, get in touch. If you have providers you love, love you and love our planet, please share them with us so we can spread the word. Best, Alexis