Building Bridges

Just last week, our flags flew over the chilly Mont Blanc Bridge here in #Geneva—symbolising strength and connection during this cold season and following a tough year. In a world facing many uncertainties, we stand firm and focused on our mission to align capital flows with sustainability goals. As the year draws to a close, we’re taking a short break to rest and recharge. We’ll be back on 2 January, ready to face the challenges of the year ahead. We hope you join us in finding time to pause, reflect, and gather strength for the new year. Wishing you a purposeful start to 2025. See you soon! #BuildingBridges24 Photo Credit: Laurent Cipriani

🌍 Building Bridges Summit 2024 | 2024 Reflections: Sustainable Finance Temperature Read A dynamic panel exploring the future of sustainable finance, featuring: Nik Gowing, Thinking the Unthinkable Dr Nina Seega, Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) Let’s build bridges towards a more sustainable future. 🌱 #BuildingBridges24 #SustainableFinance

🌍 Building Bridges Summit 2024 - Opening & Welcome Address The #BuildingBridges24 Summit kicked off with powerful insights from leaders shaping the future of sustainability and collaboration, Nik Gowing, Thinking the Unthinkable Patrick Odier, Building Bridges Delphine Bachmann, Pouvoir judiciaire de la République et canton de Genève Christina Kitsos, Ville de Genève Their inspiring words set the tone for an event full of thought-provoking discussions. 🌱

🎉 Welcome to the GSG Impact Partnership: Luxembourg and Switzerland! The Swiss Platform for Impact Investing (SPII) and the Luxembourg Sustainable Finance Initiative (LSFI) are our newest National Partners (NPs), expanding our influence in more countries to build impact economies. 🌐 Our global partnership 🫱🏼🫲🏽 allows us to connect global to local & generate📈 value from the flow of information & ideas across 45 countries, of which 50% are Emerging Markets and Developing Economies (EMDEs). 🇱🇺 Luxembourg The Luxembourg Sustainable Finance Initiative, under the guidance of its Impact Investing Advisory Board (IIAB), will work closely with leaders from business, finance, government, and the nonprofit sector to build a robust impact ecosystem in Luxembourg and beyond. Learn more ➡️ https://lnkd.in/d6pH_bqi 🇨🇭 Switzerland  The Swiss Platform for Impact Investing established by Swiss Sustainable Finance was launched at Building Bridges last week. The Platform aims to engage the Swiss ecosystem, act as an expert voice, create clarity and transparency, and increase flows of capital toward impact investing. Learn more ➡️ https://lnkd.in/d5Ai2Vr2 Read the full press releases ⬇️ Luxembourg: Nicoletta Centofanti, Gunter Fischer, Lorenzo Avico, Francois Passant I Guillaume Bonnel, Arnaud Gillin, Hedda Pahlson-Moller, Kaspar Wansleben, FCA, Laura Foschi, Stephan Peters, Juana Ramirez Switzerland: Rosa Sangiorgio, David Albertani, Julia Balandina Jaquier Guillaume Bonnel, Katja Brunner, Dr. Katharina Sommerrock, Lucy von Sturmer, Lucy Thomas, CFA, Nadia Nikolova, Christine Sete (Lewis), Natalia S., Safeya Zeitoun, Tommaso Tabet, Ingo Weber #GSGImpact #impactinvesting

🌟 A Massive Thank You to Our Volunteers & Rapporteurs! As we wrap up Building Bridges 2024, we want to extend a heartfelt thank you to the incredible volunteers and rapporteurs who made #BuildingBridges24 a resounding success. With over 70 events and more than 2,500 attendees, your hard work ensured everything ran smoothly—from handling logistics to assisting attendees and capturing valuable insights for our upcoming 2025 report. Your contributions were key in ensuring a seamless experience. We are truly grateful for your time and efforts—thank you for being such an important part of this year’s event and being a part of our journey toward a sustainable future!

🌱 What does it take to finance the transition to a healthy, sustainable and regenerative food system? 🚀 We have been exploring the specific challenges related to financing and scaling regenerative agriculture, including: 🔵High initial costs and transaction fees. 🔵Longer windows needed to see returns. 🔵Misaligned practices for setting goals and collecting data across the food value chain. During the discussion at Building Bridges last week, we identified several pathways for accelerating the shift towards sustainable food systems, considering solutions like: 🔵Blended public-private financing models to reduce risk. 🔵Measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) technologies to build trust. 🔵Innovative funding pathways to improve farmers’ access to capital. How do you think we can overcome barriers to financing regenerative agriculture? Listen to our Katherine Foster as she shares her thoughts on the discussion and tell us what you think in the comments.👇 #RegenerativeAgriculture #SustainableFinance #FutureOfFood #ImprovingFood

✳️ Reconciling diverging views on nature valuation - 4 key takeaways from our #BuildingBridges2024 event with Enterprise for Society Center (E4S) ⬇️ 1️⃣ 💶 Valuing nature is here to stay. With the rise of mandatory integrated reporting, it is becoming increasingly important for businesses and financial institutions to incorporate nature valuation into their financial reporting and decision-making processes. 💬  “It is not about investing in nature; it is about investing in a nature economy that is nature-positive.” - Simon Zadek. 2️⃣ 📈 But there are challenges ahead, and the landscape is complex. The first is reconciling cost-focused accounting with price-focused economics, alongside the other varying social and environmental approaches to valuing nature. 💬 “There is a big difference between valuing and pricing nature” - Mirey Atallah. 3️⃣ 🌿 Bridging different perspectives is vital for progress. Fostering cross-sector collaboration between scientists, policymakers, and finance professionals will be essential for designing robust, scalable solutions to nature valuation challenges. 💬  “Risk is seen as the rearview mirror, from a nature lens, we need that projection going forward” - Mauricio Castro Schmitz    4️⃣ ❗ Action is needed. We must continue facilitating actionable conversations on integrating biodiversity valuation into decision-making processes to ensure investments achieve their intended benefits without unintended consequences.  💬  “We need to get a move on. We don’t have long.” - PJ Stephenson ❇️ Thanks to all the experts who contributed to our event, including:  Edoardo Chiarotti, Simon Zadek, Mirey Atallah, Barbara Dubach, PJ Stephenson, Alisa Gessler, Sarah Conradt, Emilia Schmitt and Nadine McCormick. The event “ A new era for performance measurement: Reconciling diverging views on nature valuation” was hosted by Enterprise for Society Center (E4S) and NatureFinance during Building Bridges 2024. #NatureFinance #BuildingBridges2024 #Sustainability #ClimateAction UN Environment Programme, Innovate 4 Nature, model-it, WBCSD – World Business Council for Sustainable Development, University of Lausanne - UNIL, HEC Lausanne - The Faculty of Business and Economics of the University of Lausanne, A-Track. 

As part of the Building Bridges conference, E4S hosted a workshop together with NatureFinance, titled “A new era of performance measurement: Reconciling diverging perspectives on nature valuation”, focusing in particular on biodiversity credits and agrifood. A big shoutout to all those who contributed with their expertise and time! 📷 : Joanna O'Malley (NatureFinance) - thanks for the great pictures Simon Zadek, Edoardo Chiarotti, Alisa Gessler, Mirey Atallah, Sarah Conradt, Emilia Schmitt, Sylvain Coutu, Nadine McCormick, Barbara Dubach and PJ Stephenson Université de Lausanne, HEC Lausanne - La Faculté des Hautes Etudes Commerciales de l'Université de Lausanne | IMD | EPFL, EPFL College of Management of Technology

The fundraising landscape for not-for-profits is evolving, and we are actively exploring ways to diversify our funding sources. We attended Building Bridges 2024 last week, a crowd-sourced programme that brought together leaders in finance and not-for-profits to solve the problem of sustainable finance to achieve the SDGs. At the event, we hosted an interactive panel discussion: “Advancing global health: Innovative finance and R&D for neglected diseases” and gained valuable insights from experts in innovative finance while initiating dialogue with potential new funding providers in the audience to support our mission. 🤝 Partnerships are central to driving innovation in financing and achieving SDG3, and we’re grateful to have had the chance to start building new relationships and engage with diverse stakeholders who share our mission. 📺 Watch the full panel here: https://lnkd.in/erGBDJHW #BuildingBridges2024 #InnovativeFinance #GlobalHealth #SDGs #Partnerships

We were thrilled to take part in the 5th Edition of Building Bridges held in #Geneva last week, in partnership with the UN Environment Programme.   Jean-Francis Dusch (#BRIDGE) highlighted how infrastructure debt supports the acceleration of major decarbonization and global warming reduction plans, like 'EU Fit for 55' in Europe and the development of sustainable infrastructure in Africa and Southeast Asia. Jean-Philippe Desmartin discussed the need for “Intergenerational Collaboration in Impact Investing.” Bruno Farber (Ginkgo Advisor) shared insights on Sustainable Urban Regeneration, emphasizing that Europe's built environment could generate EUR 1.1 trillion in economic and social benefits by 2035. Our panel on "Financing the Energy Transition in Emerging Markets" was introduced by Margarita Pirovska (Principles for Responsible Investment), who shared the latest trends in sustainable finance policies. She noted that since 2000, the G20 has introduced 20 distinct types of policies, with over 20 jurisdictions adopting ISSB standards. Policies supporting the transition to net zero have also tripled since 2020. Kay Hope, Daniela Savoia and Nathalie Wallace highlighted the advancements in emerging markets, particularly the rise of Green Bonds and innovative financing tools, while Maria Eugenia Sosa Taborda (United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI)) emphasized the essential role of public-private partnerships in facilitating climate and social transitions.   A big thank you to the speakers and participants for their insightful contributions.   #BuildingBridges2024 #SustainableFinance #ImpactInvesting #EnergyTransition