May 27: Investing in Climate Justice

A Croatan Conversation with Sunwealth CFO Omar Blayton and Environmental Justice Leaders and Investors

There’s an opportunity to invest in a just transition toward a sustainable future and a clean energy economy that promotes community resilience. In this Conversation, hear from environmental justice leaders and investors about how climate solutions investments can have a social impact multiplier effect, and how important it is for advances toward a clean energy economy not to leave frontline communities behind, whether they be in coal country, like rural Appalachia, or low-resource urban communities of color. This focus on the social dimension of climate solutions investing and explicitly in climate justice can help mitigate some of the economic inequalities exacerbated by the pandemic and the climate crisis. As the current administration sets out an ambitious infrastructure plan to address climate change and address economic inequality, we’ll hear from investors and activists who have been investing in these types of projects for years, and hear what are the best ways to maximize opportunities to increase that impact.

Speakers:

• Christi Electris, Co-Founder and Fellow at Croatan Institute (Moderator)

• Omar Blayton, CFO at Sunwealth

• William Barber III, Founder and CEO of The Rural Beacon Initiative, LLC

• Vonda Brunsting, Program Manager for The Just Transition Project at Harvard Kennedy School's Initiative for Responsible Investment

• Rev. Mariama White-Hammond, Chief of Environment, Energy, and Open Spaces for the City of Boston and founding pastor of New Roots AME Church in Dorchester

Watch a recording of the Conversation on Youtube here!