Investing in Climate Resilience and Poverty Alleviation: Acumen Founder & CEO Jacqueline Novogratz

Investing in Climate Resilience and Poverty Alleviation: Acumen Founder & CEO Jacqueline Novogratz

Author: Harvard Business School Business & Environment Initiative July 16, 2025 Duration: 57:24
In this Climate Rising episode in our series on climate resilience, Jacqueline Novogratz, Founder and CEO of Acumen shares how impact investing is agriculture is helping smallholder farmers build climate resilience. Jacqueline shares insights from two decades of investing in poverty alleviation that includes climate resilience and adaptation social enterprises engaging in agriculture and off-grid solar.  She explains how Acumen uses blended capital, including philanthropic first-loss investments and commercial impact funding, to scale business models in underdeveloped markets where traditional investors hesitate. Jacqueline also shares examples of companies solving food insecurity and extreme climate risks for smallholder farmers and discusses how a “post-aid” world demands new tools, structures, and partnerships for impact investing. 

Hosted by the Harvard Business School Business & Environment Initiative, Climate Rising moves beyond abstract warnings to examine the concrete realities facing companies today. Each episode features candid conversations with senior executives, policymakers, and HBS faculty, dissecting the operational and strategic choices that define a business's relationship to a warming planet. You’ll hear how leaders are navigating pressures from investors, customers, and regulators while making pivotal decisions on everything from supply chain logistics and new technology investments to long-term risk assessment and competitive positioning. This isn't a theoretical discussion; it's a ground-level look at the practical dilemmas and innovations shaping industries. The podcast delves into the nuanced trade-offs managers face, turning climate change from a looming threat into a series of actionable, if complex, business problems. For anyone curious about how the private sector is actually responding-the successes, the stalled efforts, and the evolving playbooks-this series offers an essential and sobering dialogue. Tune in for a direct line to the thinking that is quietly redrawing the corporate map.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

Climate Rising
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