a content marketing agency working exclusively with impact business, Bark Media gets a behind-the-scenes and holistic view of the work toward systems change across sectors such as regenerative agriculture, climate action, and democracy reform. One area that promises the most potential for transformative change lies in the shift toward a regenerative economy. As Kristin Hull, Founder of Nia Impact Capital, told us: “We get the economy we invest in.” If we seek a more equitable, just, and sustainable world, we have to put our literal money where our mouth is.
Finance is a critical lever to influence economic outcomes that advance sustainability, equity, and justice. The finance sector has a unique position in helping to support the transition from an economy based in the exploitation of people and the planet to an economy based in restoration and justice. Plus, access to capital is a fundamental driver of economic prosperity — one that has historically been purposely withheld from women and People of Color. Today, underrepresented groups continue to face significant disparities in access to capital.
At the recent B Corp Champions Retreat, we met up with a few of the innovators working across the financial sector to drive the shift toward a regenerative economy. Through apps, technology, education, impact funds, banking structures, and more, these impact leaders are empowering us to make our money work toward the world we want. In this series, we highlight our conversations with these leaders.
Nia Impact Capital: Advancing Equity in Impact Investing
Nia Impact Capital is a women-owned impact asset management firm and Certified B Corporation that invests in public markets to power the transition to a regenerative, just, and inclusive economy. Launched in 2007 by Hull, Nia seeks to make it easier to shift capital toward the high-impact solutions needed for people and planet, investing across six themes: eco-friendly, affordable housing; healthcare; a sustainable planet; natural and organic foods; sustainable, affordable transportation; and thriving communities.
Nia invests in public companies delivering solutions for a healthy climate, a sustainable environment, and services and products beneficial to women and People of Color, weaving gender and racial equity criteria throughout the investment process. Nia operates on the foundational belief that gender and racial equality are key components to addressing global systemic risks and providing positive outcomes for companies, employees, and communities.
As dedicated advocates, Nia seeks to use the investor voice to speak out for justice, workers’ rights, our planet, and improved corporate conduct. As a longtime leader in the impact investing space, Nia uses tools such as proxy voting and activist stewardship to encourage improvement by companies when needed.
Bark Media spoke with Hull about impact investing, diversity, and ESG backlash.
Bark Media: Why should impact business leaders focus on where their money is invested?
Kristin Hull: So many impact business leaders are working hard on their business, yet they’re not working on where their 401(k) is invested. We all need to be asking ourselves: Who is deciding where our wealth is going? We get the economy we invest in. Who makes those decisions? If we harnessed the financial power of just the people who already care about impact and had them feeling really good about where their money is, that would be enough to change the world.
Why is it important for more women to work and lead in the investment sector?
Hull: Only 0.7% of the $80 trillion under asset management is managed by women. That means that less than 1% of our investment products are designed by women. Women think about investments in a different way. For publicly traded companies, most investing has historically been oriented toward short-term thinking. To steer ourselves toward a just economy, we need more systems thinking and long-term thinking. Women are leading the movement to transform the way we invest our money — bringing values of diverse leadership, transparency, and inclusion to address gender equity issues and other critical issues, such as environmental sustainability, racial equity, and fair wages.
We talk to all of our portfolio companies about diversity in leadership, and we need to model that in the investing space. Women investors perform well, better than men by the statistics. By having women invest, we’re helping to change the industry. At Nia, we work to democratize access to gender lens investing so that large institutional investors as well as individual investors can align their capital with their gender-smart values.
How has the recent ESG backlash affected you as an impact investor?
Hull: I actually think the anti-ESG backlash has been good in many ways. Now a lot more people know what impact investing is, and they’re asking ‘Where my money is invested? I wonder what’s in my retirement fund?’ It opens the conversation. If you do want to understand and manage where your money is invested, it’s important to work with someone you trust because sadly there is a lot of greenwashing in this area right now.
I’ve seen that Nia is fossil-fuel free. Why did you take that approach, and what does that mean at Nia?
Hull: Nia has been fossil fuel-free since inception across all of our portfolios. Nia is committed to investing for a sustainable future, which means investing in companies with products and services that provide the solutions we need and excluding investments in fossil fuels such as coal, gas, and oil extraction. Currently oil and gas companies are shifting more focus and more money into the production of plastics. By being fossil fuel-free, we keep our investors’ money out of a sector that’s directly connected to the proliferation of plastics.