Pri Podcasts

In this episode of the PRI podcast, the PRI's Head of Private Equity, Peter Dunbar, speaks with Delilah Rothenburg, Executive Director & Co-Founding Partner of The Predistibution Initiative and Tensie Whelan, Director, Center for Sustainable Business, NYU Stern.   Private equity can be a divisive topic. On the one hand, it provides strong financial returns to pension funds and other institutional investors. But, on the other hand, it has a reputation for not always acting responsibly. Delilah and Tensie highlight some of the positive and negative impacts the asset class can have on a range of stakeholders. They also introduce the work they are doing on this topic to better measure those impacts and create improved investment practices that could help create value for all.   Find the podcast transcript here: https://bit.ly/3LUjPUH

In the eighth podcast of the series on the ESG in Credit Risk and Ratings Initiative, Carmen Nuzzo, PRI speaks with Barbara Mattos, Moody’s Investors Service and Jod Hsu, NN Investment Partners about deforestation and how it can affect credit risk analysis.   Find the podcast transcript here: https://bit.ly/3wTFyIp

In this episode of the PRI podcast, the PRI’s senior lead in listed equities, Michal Bartek speaks with Steve Lydenberg, a partner at Domini Social Investments. They reflect on the key developments in responsible investing in decades past, discuss the nature of challenges that listed equity investors currently face and explore what it takes for listed equity asset managers to show leadership. Find the podcast transcript here: https://bit.ly/3iqlrsA

This episode explores the impact of mass incarceration on people and also on their families and communities. It will also look at the involvement of investors and businesses in the prison system, particularly around contracted prison labour in companies’ supply chains and the actions they can take to mitigate negative social outcomes for those most impacted.   Find the full transcript here: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/pripodcasts/Transcript_form_-_private_prisons.pdf

In this episode of the PRI podcast, PRI’s Betina Vaz Boni, speaks with Timothy Youmans from EOS at Federated Hermes. They discuss what corporate purpose is, what the latest leading research says about the future of the corporation and, why this has become a critical issue for investors. Interested in the resources discussed in this episode? Enacting Purpose Initiative Report #2: Directors & Investors: Building on Common Ground to Advance Sustainable Capitalism, Miazad, Younger, Eccles & Mayer, July 2021 : https://enactingpurpose.org/assets/epi-report-final.pdf EOS at Federated Hermes: How to move corporate purpose forward, Youmans, August 2019: https://www.hermes-investment.com/uki/eos-insight/eos/whats-the-purpose-of-business-purpose/ EOS at Federated Hermes: Statement of Purpose Guidance Document, Eccles & Youmans, August 2019: https://www.hermes-investment.com/uki/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/statement-of-purpose-guidance-document-aug-2019.pdf Harvard Business Review: 3 Ways to Put Your Corporate

This podcast explores how the US opioid crisis plays out at the local level, with repercussions not just on lives lost and healthcare costs, but also US municipal bonds and the cost of local authorities’ funding. Leading the discussion are the PRI’s Carmen Nuzzo, Head of Fixed Income, and Katherine Ng, Head of Research. They’re joined by Eric Friedland, Director of Municipal Research, Lord Abbett, and John Hund, Assistant Professor of Finance, University of Georgia. Interested in the resources discussed in this episode? Opioid abuse affects municipal access to capital: https://www.unpri.org/pri-blog/opioid-abuse-affects-municipal-access-to-capital/8827.article Sub-sovereign debt resources: https://www.unpri.org/investment-tools/fixed-income/sub-sovereign-debt Fixed income resources: https://www.unpri.org/investment-tools/fixed-income PRI academic research: https://www.unpri.org/sustainability-issues/research Find the podcast transcript: https://bit.ly/3Iwl4s6 

In this episode of the PRI podcast, the PRI’s Stewardship Specialist, Livia Rossi, speaks with Barbara Davidson from the Carbon Tracker Initiative and Caroline Escott from Railpen about carbon accounting. They discuss the integration of the financial impacts of climate-related matters into companies’ financial statements and explore the results of Carbon Tracker’s report “Flying Blind: The glaring absence of climate-related risks in financial reporting”. They reflect how better transparency on this systematic issue can help investors understand the extent to which management have considered the effects of the goals of the Paris Agreement, and how Climate Action 100+ will provide information to help investors engage, vote or allocate capital more efficiently and effectively. Find the podcast transcript: https://bit.ly/3GeSHNc

In this episode of the PRI podcast, the PRI’s senior lead in listed equities, Michal Bartek speaks with Edris Boey of Maitri Asset Management. They reflect on the key developments in ESG incorporation in APAC region, discuss what it takes for investment organisations to be or keep up with the leaders in the field. Find the podcast transcript here: https://bit.ly/3AptNJr

In this episode, the PRI’s Simon Whistler talks with Chris Clubb from Convergence and Nadia Nikolova from Allianz Global Investors on the role of blended finance in driving more sustainable investment in emerging markets. They discuss the challenges and opportunities blended finance provides for institutional investors, and why it can be such an important tool delivering more investments that will speed progress towards Net Zero and the SDGs.   Find the podcast transcript here: https://bit.ly/3qcd0ow

In this episode of the PRI podcast, the PRI’s director of Investment Practices, Toby Belsom, speaks with Marcel Jeucken from Sustfin and Daniel Ingram from Wilshire, both co-authors of PRI's recent discussion paper about ESG in Investment Mandates.   In this discussion, our guests explain why integrating ESG and sustainability outcomes into mandates is important from an Asset Owner perspective, and share experiences of working with Asset Owners trying to put this into practice. While segregated mandates are often the preserve of large AOs, the dialogue highlights tools available to smaller AOs who invest in co-mingled or pooled funds.   Find the podcast script here: https://bit.ly/3IQZa36

PRI CEO, Fiona Reynolds, has a candid conversation with Chloe Horne, Specialist – Stewardship and Vaishnavi Ravishankar, Senior Specialist – Governance about her nearly decade-long leadership of the organisation, her agenda post-PRI and hopes for the future of the responsible investment industry. Find the podcast transcript here: https://bit.ly/31L32Sc

In this episode of the PRI’s human rights podcast series, the PRI’s Bettina Reinboth speaks to Surya Deva, Chair of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights and John Morrison, CEO of the Institute of Human Rights and Business, on the impact of the UNGPs during the last decade since they were established, and what we should expect for the next decade.   Find the podcast transcript here: https://bit.ly/3Ihzc8K

The PRI’s Jasper Cox discusses how environmental, social and governance issues affect the credit risk of US municipal bonds with PIMCO’s Emily Robare and Breckinridge Capital Advisors’ Andrew Teras. Find the podcast transcript here: https://bit.ly/3cXYeey

In this second special episode of the PRI podcast, we shine the spotlight on what happened in Glasgow, at COP26. Host Liz Barnes speaks with the PRI’s CEO, Fiona Reynolds, to take stock of the conference, looking at some of the key takeaways from COP26, and discussing what needs to be done next.   Find the podcast transcript here: https://bit.ly/3DGbTCZ

In this episode of the PRI podcast, Michal Bartek, senior lead in listed equities from PRI speaks with Peter Michaelis from Liontrust. They reflect on the key developments in responsible investing in decades past, discuss the likely issues in the next decade and explore what it takes for listed equity asset management firms to be among the leaders. Find a transcript of the episode here: https://bit.ly/3CZIcw8

During this episode, Eline Sleurink, Head of UK and Ireland and Middle East, Dave Gorman, Head of Social Responsibility and Sustainability, University of Edinburgh and Ben Pollard, CEO and Cofounder, Cushon discuss how the University of Edinburgh and Cushon have set a net zero target, the first steps they are taking to achieve this, how they built a business case for net zero internally, and how they are holding themselves accountable. Find a transcript of the episode here: https://bit.ly/2Y5tDIr

In this quarterly podcast, PRI’s Aiman Zaidi speaks with Marie Luchet, Director of Continental Europe, Signatory relations about the key activities of the PRI from the past quarter and what to expect from the PRI for the remainder of the year about climate mitigation, upcoming events, our human rights work and much more. Find a transcript of the episode here: https://bit.ly/2ZANW0U

In this special episode of the PRI podcast, we shine the spotlight on COP26.  Host Liz Barnes speaks with the PRI’s Sagarika Chatterjee, Director of Climate Change, and COP26 High-level Champions Finance Co-Lead.   With just weeks to go until the highly-anticipated climate conference, they discuss the PRI’s policy expectations for key markets ahead of COP26, how to protect the world’s most vulnerable communities and the good news we’re expecting out of the conference.   Interested in the resources discussed in this episode? Race to Zero Campaign: https://unfccc.int/climate-action/race-to-zero-campaign UN-convened Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance: https://www.unepfi.org/net-zero-alliance/ Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative: https://www.netzeroassetmanagers.org/  Inevitable Policy Response: https://www.unpri.org/inevitable-policy-response/what-is-the-inevitable-policy-response/4787.article Find a transcript of the episode here: https://bit.ly/2XlVhAq

In this episode of the PRI podcast, PRI’s Director of Policy Margarita Pirovska interviews the co-author of the Legal Framework for Impact, David Rouch from Freshfields. Find a transcript of this episode here: https://bit.ly/3B9WvgV

In the fourth episode of the PRI’s human rights podcast series, Nikolaj Pedersen speaks to biomedical researcher, health rights advocate, and Head of Policy at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, Els Torreele and Peter Hughes, fund manager at AXA Investment Managers about COVID-19 vaccine ownership and distribution and what investors can do to promote fair and equal access. As of July this year, more than 80% of vaccine doses globally had been given to individuals in high and upper-middle-income countries. Only 1% of people in low-income countries at the time had had at least one dose.  The United Nations commissioner on human rights has stated that "affordable, non-discriminatory access to the vaccine is a human right" and because of the failure to provide fair and equal access to the vaccine the World Health Organisation has stated that the world "is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure". The economic consequences are also grave with an estimated $9.2 trillion lost if governments fa