Debriefing the USSIF Conference with Kimberly Griego-Kiel of Horizons Sustainable Financial Services.

There was a lot to cover at this years USSIF Conference. Policy discussions, impact reporting, greenwashing, and the recent political attacks on sustainable and responsible investing. Kimberly Griego-Kiel of Horizons Sustainable Financial Services joins the podcast this week to share her takeaways from one of the industry's most important events.

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Dan Carreno, Ethos ESG

Thank you for joining us for another edition of The Ethos ESG Podcast, where we break down the latest developments in the world of sustainable and responsible investing. Our guest today is the founding partner ofHorizons Sustainable Financial Services, Kimberly Griego-Kiel. Kim, thanks so much for being with us today. How are you?

Kimberly Griego-Kiel, Horizons Sustainable Financial Services

I'm good. Thanks so much for having me on. I appreciate the opportunity to have a chat with you too.

Brittany D'Amico, Ethos ESG

Thanks, Kim. We're so excited to have you. So, Kim, Dan, and I recently attended theUSSIF Conferencein New Mexico last month. We want to focus our roundtable discussion on our key takeaways from the conference. We realize that not everyone may be familiar with USSIF or the United States Sustainable Investment Forum. So, Kim, would you be kind enough to give us a little background on USSIF and tell us how you're involved in the organization?

Kimberly Griego-Kiel, Horizons Sustainable Financial Services

Let me start by saying I am a board member of USSIF, which is a non-profit. As a board member, my job is to promote the work that USSIF is doing in a couple of areas. One is providing education to individual investors and advisors who want more information about impact investing and ESG. The second major piece is working on policy. So those are the two key things that USSIF works on.

Brittany D'Amico, Ethos ESG

Very necessary pieces of the ESG and sustainable finance space. So, let's hop in. Do you want to go first into something that was a major takeaway from USSIF?

Kimberly Griego-Kiel, Horizons Sustainable Financial Services

I have like three major ones. First of all, I want to say it was so great to be in person at this conference and see people face to face. My first major takeaway is that both advisors and clients want to see better processes for impact reporting. That was a big topic of discussion during the conference.

Brittany D'Amico, Ethos ESG

I would agree. There was so much interest in how we provide impact reporting. And I would also like to reiterate that it was lovely to be in person for the first time since COVID.

Kimberly Griego-Kiel, Horizons Sustainable Financial Services

So let me tell you the other two. I don't know if you two listened to the presentation by Ian Urbina, the author of Outlaw Ocean. That made a huge impact on me personally. I bought the book. I'm reading it, and it is blowing my mind. I think that this is an important book for everyone to read. He is the founder of something called theOutlaw Ocean Project. They focus on the troubles that happen on the high seas. The crimes. The enslavement of people working on some of these supply chain ships. One of the pieces I wrote down was that one in five fish that end up on our plates is unethically sourced, meaning from suppliers who are fishing illegally or using slave labor. It's a very good book. And then I'll mention the last thing, which is the recent media attacks on ESG. My takeaway is that we have to lean into this controversy and not avoid it. It's our responsibility to be the voice of impact investing and ESG as a process of impact investing. This is not a passing fad. This is something clients want and are passionate about. So we have to lean into those negative comments and address them head-on. There is not really a unified voice. The closest thing is USSIF.

Dan Carreno, Ethos ESG

So there were a lot of sessions at the conference around greenwashing. I think that there were a lot of good intentions to make sure that everything is being represented and communicated accurately to the investing public. You have a lot of really smart people twisting themselves into knots to make sure that we're getting all the nuance and details in there. As admirable as that goal is, my concern is that we're going to have white papers, and the people that want to make this part of the culture wars are just going to say ESG equals socialism. It doesn't make any sense. They don't care if it makes any sense. So one side is going to have bumper stickers, and the other side is going to have white papers. I'm worried that in a messaging war, the white papers lag behind.

Kimberly Griego-Kiel, Horizons Sustainable Financial Services

I think for those of us who are the advocates, we have to bring this down to the level of understanding that most of the United States have around investing in the first place. If we go too into the weeds, people just glass over. We really have to bring this down to the level of understanding for everyone.

Dan Carreno, Ethos ESG

Which I think goes back to the comment about reporting. It has to be digestible and simple and relay a story.

Kimberly Griego-Kiel, Horizons Sustainable Financial Services

When my wife and I were working on same-sex marriage in New Mexico as lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit here, our job was to tell stories because people relate to that. So, if we're telling stories about impact, that's what people want to hear. And that's what they understand.

Brittany D'Amico, Ethos ESG

At the conference, the deputy national climate advisor at the White House came in on Zoom and had a really interactive conversation. It was a really powerful moment to be able to communicate with somebody that's in the White House working on these kinds of issues. There was another segment with Caroline Crenshaw, who is an SEC Commissioner. I was so surprised at how receptive she was. She just kept asking the people at the conference, what do you guys say? I want your insights. I thought that was really valuable, and I really appreciate that about USSIF.

Kimberly Griego-Kiel, Horizons Sustainable Financial Services

Right. Related to that, I wrote down something that John Hale of Morningstar said, that these attacks are evidence of success, not failure in our industry. We do have to have some kind of unified voice so that we can all join together and make progress.

Dan Carreno, Ethos ESG

Excellent. Well, thanks so much. This was a great roundtable discussion. Before we wrap up the podcast today, we are going to do a session that we call Around the Campfire. This is just an opportunity for us to share something interesting or personal that's been going on in our lives. It could be related to sustainability, sustainable investing, or anything else. Brittany, did you want to kick us off?

Brittany D'Amico, Ethos ESG

I had the opportunity to teach a yoga class at the conference. It was so wonderful. We were outside looking at the mountains, and it was just gorgeous. I was really appreciative of how many people showed up. There were over 40 people that came to this class that were grateful to be able to take a moment and just have mindfulness and stillness. It really inspired me to get out and start teaching a bit more.

Kimberly Griego-Kiel, Horizons Sustainable Financial Services

I was invited to a meeting of some very interesting people at theCarbon Disclosure Projectin Scotland. We'll see if I'm able to make that work. And I've never been to Scotland. It's huge, and I appreciate the honor of being invited.

Dan Carreno, Ethos ESG

I sit on the board of an organization called Auricle Productions, which does non-profit journalism. They produce a podcast calledThreshold. Threshold has just released its fourth season, which explores the climate crisis. They attended the recent COP Conference and created this really rich audio environment where you really kind of feel like you're at the conference. I highly recommend it. You should tune in and listen to Threshold. We do appreciate you tuning in, and we will be back soon with another episode of The Ethos ESG Podcast.

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