A group of 11 family offices has committed to invest $300 million in clean energy, infrastructure, agriculture and water.
The family offices are part of the Cleantech, Renewables and Environmental Opportunities (Creo) Network, which was established in 2011 and counts more than 50 family offices and private foundations as members.
The commitment is in response to a White House roundtable on impact investing earlier this summer, which challenged investors to accelerate innovative investments to address pressing domestic and global issues.
The members that made the $300 million commitment include: Capricorn Investment Group, Drakes View Capital, the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, CCM Energy, the Wallace Global Foundation, Sustainable America, Wolfensohn & Co, Forsythia Foundation, and MissionPoint.
This capital will be deployed towards direct investments primarily in the areas of climate, energy, health, food and sustainability.
The commitments include:
- $100 million from Capricorn Investment Group to be invested in sustainable assets including renewable energy, energy efficiency and water infrastructure, over the next three years.
- CCM Energy will invest $30 million to accelerate the deployment of clean energy and resource efficiency solutions in the built environment in the US.
- The Betsy & Jesse Fink family office is committing $15 million, invested through MissionPoint Partners, towards "transformative solutions that build healthy communities by improving environmental sustainability and resilience".
- Wolfensohn & Co is dedicating $5 million in principal capital and committing its investment platform, Wolfensohn Fund Management, to "exponentially increase" its efforts in values-aligned and impact investments. Its aim is to help client families and foundations deploy $500 million over five years into the sectors of financial inclusion, renewable energy, green infrastructure, ecosystem services and sustainability.
"The fact that the community can now embrace everything from rural microfinance to large scale renewable energy within the big tent of 'impact and values aligned investments' shows the great maturation of the field over the past few years," said Adam Wolfensohn of Wolfensohn & Co.
The Creo Network is co-convened by Jason Scott of EKO Asset Management Partners and Martin Whittaker of Just Capital. Its members collectively constitute more than $50 billion of investible capital.
Peter Cripps