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Has COVID-19 really changed what it means to be a successful green start up?

11/10/2020

By Daniel Smart, Executive Chairman,
The Green Recruitment Company

My name is Daniel Smart, I am the Executive Chairman of the Green Recruitment Company and a member of the Green Angel Syndicate. This is my first blog for the Green Angel Syndicate, and I thought I would tackle a topic that touches upon my experience in founding and scaling up businesses. I wanted to consider if COVID-19 really changed what it means to be a successful green start up? It is a sensitive topic, but the aim of this blog is to focus on what it means for entrepreneurs as much as possible.

What sort of investments should we be making?

25/9/2020

By Nick Lyth

Some of you may have heard me saying that ESG is a worthless concept. Bankrupt. It is the invention of corporate PR departments cloaking the harm their companies do with an incomprehensible mantle of decency. What does ESG mean, even? It is an acronym, not a word. (“Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance”, for the many who still don’t know what it stands for. Try explaining that in one sentence to a child, and see what you come up with.)

Who needs a green recovery?

4/9/2020

By Jonny Hughes, WCMC Chief Executive Officer, UNEP-WCMC

This article was originally published on the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre Website on 11th August 2020.

The idea of the green economy is no longer the preserve of radicals and marginal campaign groups. Governments are now seriously waking up to the promise of what a new type of inclusive and sustainable economics could bring. Cleaner air, healthier, happier people living their lives in nurturing environments that not only provide a secure supply of food, water, medicine and raw materials for life but inspire and excite too. This new economics comes with the prospect of a new wave of ‘green-collar jobs’ providing millions with secure and fulfilling employment. A recent World Economic Forum (WEF) report on the Future of Nature and Business estimates that a transition to a green economy could create 395 million jobs globally and $10.1 trillion in annual business value by 2030.

What might degrowth mean for angel investors?

2/9/2020

by Johnny Stormonth-Darling

Many will now be familiar with emerging ideas and political movements around so-called green growth beginning to appear in the policies and manifestos of mainstream political parties around the world, often in the form of a Green New Deal. These tend to be visions of society-wide reforms, not only to tackle environmental issues such as resource use and global warming, but also social problems like wealth inequality which are increasingly being highlighted as intrinsic to the neoliberal capitalist project.[1–3] Putting those aside for a moment and focussing on ideas of green innovation, syndicates like Green Angel Syndicate are clearly in line with this leading edge of political thought seeking to transform our GDP lifeblood into something compatible with the planet’s biophysical limits; delivering wealth and prosperity and restoring the environment at the same time.

Dr Matthew Hannon opens the GAS Insights Programme

18/8/2020

By David Sheridan

Last Thursday (13/08/20) Green Angel Syndicate launched its Insights Programme, a series of talks designed and promoted by the GAS Members for the Members that will broaden our knowledge and insight into the issues raised by entrepreneurial investment into the fight against climate change and global warming.

Our opening speaker was Dr Matthew Hannon, Senior Lecturer and Director of Research at the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship, attached to the University of Strathclyde Business School. Dr Hannon leads UK thought on the links between the energy transition we know needs to happen, the innovation that is required if it is to happen and the entrepreneurialism that is essential to bringing these innovations to life. In other words, Matt is one of the world experts on the very things that Green Angel Syndicate is striving to achieve.

Summer Reads: Books to pack for the beach

8/8/2020

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By Nick Lyth

The enforced incarceration of lockdown is being followed by a curious, twilight holiday season. We can move around again, but not as before. Instead of the beach in the Mediterranean, we are being drawn to the beach in Britain that might not seem quite as inviting. But it is a good chance to catch up with the upsurge in publications on Climate Change. I have been reading some that took me by surprise, and can recommend two in particular.

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Whitepaper: Fashion Sustainability and the Investment Decision

12/6/2020

By Peter Kramers

This white paper provides a systemic review of the many factors that influence the sustainability of the fashion industry, providing a holistic appraisal of the textiles and garment value chain.

The paper was prepared by Peter Kramers, a non-executive director, investor and retail executive with over 30 years’ of diversified sector experience. Believing in a sustainable fashion future and firmly of the view that the consumer model must change, has made him an advocate for fashion innovation, calling for the sector to be re-invented re-imagined and re-invested in to make it more sustainable. Peter believes we can all do more to balance people and planet with profit which motivated him to join the Green Angels Syndicate.

What’s the good of another tiny brick in the wall?

8/6/2020

By Nick Lyth

We’re dying of corona virus, the global economy is in nosedive, climate change is coming to batter us into submission, America is burning, and all we can offer is a new brick? Is it worth it? Who cares?

We care. It is worth it. It may be a tiny innovation, but it is an intelligent air brick, that will improve the regulation of ventilation and humidity in social housing, which in turn will raise the flow of clean air, and reduce the scale of polluted lungs and infectious diseases, and that will help to improve the health of the home owners, while reducing their expense on heating and the health system, and so will encourage a greater sense of well-being, at the same time as lowering energy use and carbon emissions, and thus help to lower global warming, minimise climate change, and lower the spread of corona virus, while reducing the toxic gap between rich and poor throughout the western world. It’s called AirEx, and we are arranging an investment in it right now.

A small innovation with a domino effect rippling through the entire social, economic and medical fabric of our community.

Jonny Hughes of UNEP-WCMC talks conservation and restoration of the natural capital

4/6/2020

By Antoine Pradayrol

On 28 May 2020, Green Angel Syndicate had the great pleasure to host Jonny Hughes for the second of our series of online fire-side chats. The event was well attended with 50 of our members and guests joining.

Jonny is the Chief Executive Officer of WCMC (World Conservation Monitoring Centre) a UK charity that works in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme as UNEP-WCMC, a global centre of excellence on biodiversity based in Cambridge. UNEP-WCMC aims to ‘put nature at the heart of decision-making’, offering science-based solutions to policy making as well as helping governments and non-state actors implement policies on the ground - working in 107 countries across the world.

What is the best-kept secret about behaviour change?

19/5/2020

By Nick Lyth

That it is NEVER rational, it is only enforced.

Since the start of the 1990’s, when the facts about climate change and global warming had become obvious to all; when the problems with resource use and resource allocation were overwhelmingly clear; when the Brundtland Report had articulated a new system for global social and economic self-preservation which was adopted by all the World leaders at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit; Behaviour Change has been referenced as a necessary pre-condition for solving these problems.

Chris Stark, CEO of the UK’s Committee on Climate Change, talks Covid-19 and climate change

11/5/2020

By Antoine Pradayrol

On 7 May, Green Angel Syndicate organised a Zoom-powered ‘fireside chat’ with Chris Stark, CEO of the UK’s Committee on Climate Change. The event drew strong interest, with 82 attendees dispersed in as many thumbnails on the screens. Its timing was perfect, just a day after the CCC had published a letter to the government with precise, crystal clear advice on how to embed climate-positive actions in its plans to drag the economy out of the profound recession caused by the Covid-19 crisis.

This blog summarises the main points made by Chris, in our own words.

“You’ve got to do something now, or you’ll all be in trouble…”

11/5/2020

By Nick Lyth

The recent history of our world – the last thirty years, let’s say – has been a story of repeated warnings that have been ignored. The warnings were all concerning the dangers of climate change. Reports that go back further than 30 years have been emphatic in their view of the dangers approaching.

GAS portfolio survey shows long-term optimism

15/4/2020

By Chris Joly

Green Angel Syndicate is the only angel investment syndicate in the UK specialising in investments that are of benefit to the Green Economy. As such, its priority focus has always been resource use sectors, where innovations are needed to make the ways we use food, water, energy, waste and recycling more sustainable for the challenge we face.

Photo by Ross Stephenson on Unsplash

Covid-19. Are you powerless or a leader?

9/4/2020

By John Waters

With so many science based rules and constraints imposed, how can we show leadership through these unprecendented times?

The rapid proliferation of Covid-19 leaves us feeling scared, vulnerable, and powerless to protect those near and dear to us. Disturbingly, we know that an inability to influence an outcome is hugely stressful for people. In short, the perception makes the reality much worse.

Photo by Fusion Medical Animation on Unsplash

Is this the end of angel investment?

3/4/2020

By Nick Lyth

The Question

In these dark days of lockdown and economic paralysis due to Covid-19, many ask whether it will be possible to continue an angel investment syndicate?

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GREEN ANGEL BLOG

Has COVID-19 really changed what it means to be a successful green start up?

What sort of investments should we be making?

Who needs a green recovery?

What might degrowth mean for angel investors?

Dr Matthew Hannon opens the GAS Insights Programme

Summer Reads: Books to pack for the beach

Whitepaper: Fashion Sustainability and the Investment Decision

What’s the good of another tiny brick in the wall?

Jonny Hughes of UNEP-WCMC talks conservation and restoration of the natural capital

What is the best-kept secret about behaviour change?

Chris Stark, CEO of the UK’s Committee on Climate Change, talks Covid-19 and climate change

“You’ve got to do something now, or you’ll all be in trouble…”

GAS portfolio survey shows long-term optimism

Covid-19. Are you powerless or a leader?

Is this the end of angel investment?

The Question

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