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March 2019 News

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Impact Seed Analysis Paper on the State Government's 'Our Priorities' Launch


We welcome Premier Mark McGowan's launch of 'Our Priorities' for Western Australia on 20th February 2019.  The Program consists of six key outcome areas and twelve ambitious targets across the environment, communities, economy, regional prosperity and Aboriginal wellbeing.


Our new paper is an analysis of each aspect of the Priorities and addresses how Impact Investment strategies in Western Australia can support achievement of the Priorities.


 

Impact Seed's analysis paper addressing 'Our Priorities' and Impact Investment can be downloaded here
 



Additionally, in Impact Seed's recent submission to the Treasurer's Office, we outlined six policy engagement points for the State Government as it considers its approach to Impact Investment.  These engagement points consider how private capital can support and release government capital, recognising the importance of collaboration to help solve the complex problems in our community.  The six policy points outlined in our submission focus:

  1. Social Procurement Strategy
  2. Social Enterprise Accreditation Framework
  3. Social Enterprise Development Strategy
  4. Social Innovation Policy
  5. Direct Impact Co-Investment
  6. Pay-for-Performance Contracting including Social Impact Bonds

For more information on these papers and opportunities for collaboration on impact investment in WA please contact: team@impactseed.org

Collaboration with RegenWA for
Impact Investment in Regenerative Agriculture

Western Australia's agriculture sector is a critical economic contributor, with over 80% of produce exported internationally. With considerable State Government policy support for Regenerative Agriculture there is now an unprecedented industry transformation opportunity to benefit this key export market. It has considerable export potential from outputs as well as technology and expertise development.

Through 2018 RegenWA - the WA Regenerative Farmers Network - has been working closely with Impact Seed on the development of a collaboration to develop impact investment into regenerative agriculture projects in WA.

Benefits of Regenerative Farming Industry Growth

“Regenerative Agriculture is an ecological approach to farming
that enables landscapes to renew themselves”
(Charles Massy, 2018)


Regenerative Agriculture has the capacity to transform and dramatically improve land management practices, carbon drawdown and sustainable food production through restoring soil microbiome biodiversity, and importantly, tap into international export and investment markets.

Benefits of regenerative farming are far reaching, from simply reducing chemical use and improving food nutrient density, through to restoring farming communities, restoring the natural water cycle and significant carbon sequestration.   

Government Support for Growth of Regenerative Farming
State Agriculture and Food Minister Alannah MacTiernan, in launching RegenWA said that the network is a way of connecting farmers across the State who were interested in learning more about the practice and sharing information about R&D outcomes. She said it was the State government’s obligation to invest in research and development of the practice.



Collaboration to Fill an Unmet Need
There is a significant capacity and skills gap in the Regenerative Farming sector in the areas of industry development and investment growth of Regen projects and enterprises in Western Australia

In exploring opportunities for collaboration, Impact Seed and RegenWA have developed a collaboration model which will support commercialisation, scale and impact investment into regenerative agriculture businesses in WA.

We are also thrilled to announce that co-founder of RegenWA, Justin Wolfgang will be leading Impact Seed's practice in social impact investment through regenerative agriculture. With an extensive farming background in a multi-generational farming family, Justin intimately understands the immense challenges and dysfunction inherent in our food system and climate impacts, and also the abundant opportunities for change. 

Justin has drawn together internationally renowned thought leaders and domain experts (such as Dr Charles Massy, Dr Christine Jones, Walter Jehne, Colin Seis, Dr Nick Rose, Maarten Stapper, and more) to collaborative design and innovation events in WA, connected hundreds of diverse cross-sector stakeholders and worked with all levels of business and government to align to a common purpose – the regeneration and reconnection of our food system.

The collaboration between Impact Seed and RegenWA will play a critical role in identifying, supporting and preparing regenerative agricultural focused ventures to access investment.

For more information please contact us: team@impactseed.org


WA Social Enterprise Development Workshop

Our second sector development workshop for 2019 is on social enterprise development and funding through impact investment in Western Australia.

This 3-hour workshop is designed to provide information and understanding of social enterprise development for stakeholders across NFP sector, community organisations, Local and State government agencies, and entrepreneurs looking to strategically develop or invest in social enterprise.  It covers:

  • The five social enterprise impact models
  • Stakeholder centred design and development including collaboration, validation and business modelling
  • The spectrum of incorporation models and structures from traditional business, social enterprise, cooperatives and not for profit
  • The relationship between NFP and social enterprise, and mission alignment
  • Funding social enterprise through impact investment
  • Case studies and examples of social enterprise across the spectrum
THIS FOCUSED WORKSHOP IS STRICTLY LIMITED TO 25 ATTENDEES WITH  A LIMITED NUMBER OF EARLY BIRD TICKETS AVAILABLE.

Book now as this event will sell out.

 

On Purpose..and Profit

This is a topic very close to our hearts and we've written on it before.  2019 has brought some amazing resources on the subject of Purpose. As humanity grapples with the impact on the planet of the business-as-usual approach to markets, government and finance, a  "purpose-washing", or "impact-washing" movement has also emerged to become the new green-washing. 

Here we look at a seminal new 2019 book from a godfather of impact investment on the Purpose of Capital, as well as two good articles which explore the purpose-washing phenomenon and its true impacts.
 

The Purpose of Capital - by Jed Emerson

Image result for jed emersonImage result for jed emerson purpose of capital
This book is a must read for 2019 and a great interview with one of the godfathers of impact investing and author of top of the list impact investment book of 2019, The Purpose of Capital, Jed Emerson

We often forget that our understanding of capital and market economics are  the outcome of four centuries of experience..simply a construct that we've embraced as the "operating system" of our society.

But how can markets be objective and rational if they're driven by fear and greed? 

We embraced this system of capital flows, and we have the power and capacity to redefine the idea that market economics..is objective and rational, and outside the bounds of social conversation. 

We have collectively come to a place, and we can go to another place.  We don't have to accept the purpose of capital as it is today.   
 

Purpose Paradigm - Solution or Scam 

In this article Torres-Rahman reflects the deepening frustration amongst some with the rhetoric of “purpose”. For those of us who believe in the power of business to do good, this is an opportunity for some honest self-reflection. 
 

Big Business Has a New Scam

In this article Hengeveld's reflection ultimately is that purpose is still being used in positive ways, including rethinking business models, and in that, it still has value. Ultimately, she says, and we agree, its all about the authenticity behind it.

Our Top Articles of the Month

We’ve trawled the innards of the internet to bring you a curated look at the world of impact investment, innovation, social enterprise, critical thought and reflection.
 
  1. Tech / AI: Co-opted by the demands of the market & atomizing human agency
    Team HumanImage result for doug rushkoff
    Our other equal top-read for 2019: Despite early promise, media theorist, and author who coined 'viral media' all the way back in 1995, Doug Rushkoff now sees information technologies and social media as dangerous forces unraveling the basic human impulse to connect and cooperate.

    "Our culture is composed of more mediated experiences than direct ones," he writes. "Yet we are more alone and atomized than ever before. Our most advanced technologies are not enhancing our connectivity but thwarting it.
    We are embedding some very old and very disparaging notions about human beings and their place in the natural order into our technological infrastructure. Engineers at our leading tech firms and universities tend to see human beings as the problem and technology as the solution. When they are not developing interfaces to control us, they are building intelligences to replace us".. Rushkoff's recent TED talk launching Team Human here:


     
  2. Larry Fink's 2019 Letter to BlackRock's $6Trillion Investee Company CEOs 
    Image result for larry fink letter
    "Each year I write to the companies in which BlackRock invests ($6Trillion) on behalf of our clients.. Around the world, frustration with years of stagnant wages, the effect of technology on jobs and uncertainty have fueled popular anger, nationalism, and xenophobia.

    Some of the world’s leading democracies have descended into wrenching political dysfunction. Trust in multilateralism and official institutions is crumbling..

    As divisions continue to deepen, companies must demonstrate their commitment to the countries, regions, and communities where they operate, particularly on issues central to the world’s future prosperity.

    Companies cannot solve every issue of public importance, but there are many."
    More here.
     
  3. Gender equality in economics

    Only 14% of economists are women.. "Economics is most usefully the study of how best to achieve human prosperity — which can only reach its potential with the full participation and contributions of women" (Lynn Parramore)
  4.  

  5. Supply to Government - Price is not everything

    Almost 20% of GDP is already spent on social spending including health and pensions, but govt tenders focus almost entirely on the bottom line (with a token nod to 'buy local').

    What if the next WA govt tender was weighted on how the supplier provided for victims of family violence, made its workplace accommodating to people with disabilities, or action on climate change?

    What if the tender was weighted as to how the supplier engaged social enterprises as sub contractors?

    What if the WA Government's $2.5 Billion Metronet had such a social procurement policy that provided social uplift to those most disadvantaged in our communities, reducing government direct spend on social services in the long term?
     
  6. Understanding the "Why" of Impact Investing
    Bruce DeBoskey.
    Sustainable, responsible and impact-investing assets now account for $12T of $46T assets under professional management in the US, a 38% increase over 2016.

    Can this massive growth occur so quickly without reckless and widespread impact-washing by fund managers and investees? An exploration and call to intent, intention.. the 'Why' of impact investing and the operating system it's premised on.
     
  7. Making progress on Social Enterprise incorporation models
    Alan Greig makes some interesting observations on the skirting baby steps towards establishing Australia's first incorporation structure for social enterprise outlined in this article, although we are well behind global leaders..

     
  8. The newest and most innovative model is Luxembourg's, enabling a hybrid 50/50 split of ordinary shareholders (allowing financial first investors), and impact-shareholders with an impact-first mandate and limits on financial returns. In Australia such innovation would be transformative for the finance, impact investment and philanthropy sectors, effectively enshrining a hybrid of our NFP and the rapacious For-Profit pty ltd incorporation model which places growth in shareholder returns above everything else (witness banks behaviour under this profit primacy).

    We still have a long way to go. While CSEF, Co-ops and employee ownership structures deliver equity and justice across stakeholder groups, they still have limits in attracting the vast reserves of private capital in the same way the Luxembourg model allows. Adding a hybrid incorporation model would be a game changer in terms of accelerating the shift of private capital
     
  9. Solving Poverty Using the Tools of Silicon Valley? Start with People, and not Problems 
    A homeless person tries to stay warm at the entrance of a subway station near the White House. Credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque

     
  10. Banking royal commission: "the problem isn’t the lack of a purpose, but the seemingly yawning gap between words and actions." (by Kristy Muir)

    Clarity of purpose and enacting purpose in specific examples is no longer enough. To win back trust and to really demonstrate the connection between profit and purpose, companies need to demonstrate whether they are meeting their purpose...In an age of needing a social licence to operate and when market forces are dominating the social sector, organisations and boards can’t afford not to understand their social impact.

     
  11. A coalition of giant brands to change how we shop forever, with a new zero-waste platform
    Image result for haagen dazs steel
    While recycling is critical, it won't solve for waste at the root cause, In the next few months a coalition of global brands will try.. Soon, when you’re done eating a tub of Haagen-Dazs, you’ll toss the sleek stainless steel package in your personal reuse bin instead of your bin. Then it will be picked up for delivery back to a cleaning and sterilization facility so that it can be refilled with more ice cream for another customer.

     
  12. A Year In Impact Enterprise and Investing

    According to the Global Impact Investing Network’s (GIIN) most recent Annual Investor Survey, the size of the global impact investing market doubled in a year, from $114 billion in assets in 2017 to $228 billion in 2018
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