Published on: 01 January 1970
Many companies are dealing with two disruptive forces that seem to call for completely different strategies: climate change and inflation. How can companies catalyze green investments while responding to the cost-of-living crisis?
We spoke to Luca Zerbini, IRG Participant 2021 and founder of Una Terra, an investment fund focusing on Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss. Recently Una Terra was selected as one of the top innovative funds investing in purpose-driven start-ups around the world. UpLink is the World Economic Forum’s open innovation platform sourcing innovative solutions for the world’s most pressing problems. Una Terra is targeting 2Gtons of CO2e emissions and 1Mtons of plastic waste per year by 2030, investing €300m in 20-30 scale-ups and growth companies, across all sectors having the most significant impact on our environment.
“I don’t think there is a more important objective than protecting people and all human beings on Earth from our own mistakes of the past, while also generating significant value for. Each industry deals with inflation in its own way, but based on our experience in the world of green investments, we see an opportunity to use this time of increasing prices as an opportunity to accelerate the transition to more sustainable solutions. Energy is the area where price increases have been highest (30-40% YoY) due to Ukraine’s invasion by Russia and related supply constraints.
The response of the Western world has been to accelerate the move to solar, wind and water, which not only are completely free energy sources (as they are “not fuels”) and “not owned” by any country, but also are typically distributed, so less at risk of political decisions or terroristic attacks. Transportation will benefit in a similar way over time from the transition to electrification, while food inflation has been particularly high for meat, a transition to plant-based and more local choices would also be beneficial. Overall, while at first glance we may think sustainable development and inflation are at a trade-off, in reality, higher prices of existing solutions reduce the “green premium” favoring the transition to more sustainable choices.”
Inspired by Luca Zerbini, IRG Participant 2021 - CEO and founder of Una Terra
