 I'm really looking forward to what we're able to do next year. It's going to be a great year for us all, but the other thing I wanted to point out is that we're not the only people having a 10-year anniversary. There are quite a few organizations that are celebrating this particular milestone. And Lindsay Smolling, our curator at SoCAP and the content producer, our producer is going to come out to the stage with some folks from other organizations that are also celebrating 10-year anniversaries to talk about what that has been like for and their organizations as well. So Lindsay. Good morning everyone. So with the 10-year anniversary it sort of caught us by surprise a little bit and as we started looking around we realized that 10 years ago was a pretty special time in this field when there were actually a lot of organizations that got started and these amazing folks that are sitting up here with me today are some pretty heavy hitters in terms of what's been done in this field in the last 10 years. So I'm really excited for this conversation. Not so much to look back on what the last 10 years had, but to look forward from these folks who have been doing this for 10 years and say what's really coming for this field as we all sit here today and get really excited about moving forward. So I actually want to start with you Patricia and ask when you started Varis you were obviously replying to a demand from clients to align their assets with their money. How did those conversations look then and how are they really different starting potentially in a different place now? So 10 years ago I just I want to do a quick step back just beyond 10 years is because I've been in the industry for 25 years and I really want to when I came into the industry 25 years ago they were already pioneers that were doing socially responsible investing and we really stand on their shoulders and so it's really want to honor them for many people that are new to impact investing and impact investing was one of the three pillars of socially responsible investing so there was impact investing there was shareholder activism and then there was a screening around environmental and social issues and so it was at that 10-year period where impact really became elevated and I think what really was was key what was a big transition how I talk about it or think about it it was really the transition of like now is the time to be solutions oriented and so when we look at our clients at that time the clients that we started Varis with many of them were very progressive politically and I think one of the myths people often think about impact investing is they weren't young they were most of them were either my age or older than me they were white identified most of the people in the industry working in the industry were white identified the demographic demographics were New York Atlantic Coast New England California of course and then when you look at the thematic areas that they were interested in social justice and environmental justice were really really key and so I think what happened in at that moment in time we attracted a lot of clients when we first launched and then and at that time the Monetary Institute report was coming out V lab was launching and the financial crisis happened so that all that's the other thing that happened at this 10-year anniversary I don't know if everybody remembers that but it's pretty key and so really that that that both froze people for a while and then coming out of that I think people felt they started looking at their portfolio and saying what really is in this portfolio in a different way how can it be used how can capital be used to have even more impact to provide solutions and so our clients today from a thematic point of view it's it's it's beyond the broad umbrellas of environmental social and governance issues and it's really very many thematic issues so if you even look at community wealth building or community wealth development within that within that you have housing you have issues of working around race of inclusion so our clients are driven to us you know by specific thematic areas sustainable agriculture regenerative agriculture our clients are leading us to the next opportunities and I think that's what another thing that's really changed where we were in a period where we were convincing people to do environmental social governance investing to do impact investing to do shareholder engagement and now we have clients more and more clients coming to us challenging us our clients are experts in those fields they lead us to what the next the next area thematic area that we're going to work on and then we're constantly challenged of how do we actually create this and make this happen so I think that the demographics when you look at it ours from a geographic point of view are changing some I think one of the issues that we have and we'll talk a little bit more later about it but we're still pretty as far as the investors go and the clients white identified we're seeing many more foundations come into the fold we're really seeing that explode thanks to organizations like mission investors exchange and confluence philanthropy where before you were really trying to convince foundations to do this now they are not only taking the lead in regards more and more foundations coming into the fold but they're taking the lead on the impact areas where they really want to see capital yeah deployed so you're really seeing a more innovative more client-driven demand on not just wanting product but wanting to go deep in the thematic areas that's great yeah and I wonder too so Bart you work with a lot of companies which is sort of a different part of the field but I wonder if you're maybe seeing you know you're sort of nodding your head as Patricia's indicating some of these changes how is that changing also in the group you work with sure so certainly Lindsay when we began we were speaking to the true believers right if I go back ten years and think about where B-Lab sat at its inception this was about leadership and trying to find those organizations who for decades had been leading this field of CSR sustainability social enterprise choose your your terminology in and for that community what we offered was a certification right a platform for them to have a voice bigger than themselves the truth is that leadership we still talk to them the same way right that certification has just scaled over the last decade where we now have about 2300 certified B corporations in 54 countries what's been interesting is that with the development of that community it's all the folks who now want to be like a B Corp and what we've had to offer to meet them where they are because they often show up with a listen I heard that Natura in Brazil was a B Corp or a Trito Spank in Amsterdam or Patagonia and you know what does that mean and for those organizations we need to change the way we approach them and meet them where they are and help them along this journey help them up the mountain so we've been working to try to develop a couple of tools that do exactly that one of one of which is our impact assessment right we have a tool we use for certification we've had to make that fun easy to use contagious so that people can engage we now have about 65,000 companies using that platform just as kind of a do-it-yourself free consulting tool to know where to begin to figure out the road to using their business as a force for good similarly as you know part of our work is around trying to create governance structures that allow you to align your governance with your mission and early on you know we had people jumping in to these governance structures without really understanding exactly what it meant truthfully and over the course of the decade we've been able to pass some legislation here in the states in 35 states and it's moving forward in 11 other countries and we now see more and more companies showing up without an interest in the certification or an interest frankly in the impact measurement tool they simply want to make sure that their mission is preserved long term and they use our governance structure so we have about 6000 companies now using the benefit core structure across the globe and so it it is both the who and the what that has changed over the last decade that's great yeah and then Giselle I want to ask so Patricia mentioned the monitor report and I think at that moment 10 years ago that report really catalyzed a lot of this field and the gin took up so many of those initiatives to build the infrastructure for this field take the recommendations in that report and move forward now that we're sort of 10 years in and there's been so much progress made on so many of these where do you where are you looking for sort of the critical role for gin to play going forward and an infrastructure we still need to build great and in the spirit of looking forward I'll start by just sharing or painting what the future looks like and that's the future that we're all striving to achieve with in building impact investing so this is a future where it is no longer acceptable to make investments without regard for the environment for society where we're all making investments by paying attention to long-term performance and where the transparency in the transaction is such that investors are readily able to understand and consider the positive and social positive and negative non-financial impact of the choices and we're really taking into consideration risk return impact equally well in standard financial theory and this is a future where we have all kinds of products hello and this is a future where we have products available for all types of investors so that they are allocating a portion of the assets to this important strategy of investing so so this is a future where because of the way we allocate assets we wake up every day future generations to a healthy planet to an equitable society now the question is how to go from here to there we've made tremendous progress in three main areas of work outlined in the monitor report in building efficient intermediaries to unlock capital in building enabling infrastructure and also in increasing the absorptive capacity of social enterprises and all of this is thanks to the effort of all of you in this room and the gym is very proud to have contributed to the effort including in creating the largest global community of impact investors with 250 members in 30 plus countries there's so much more that we need to do we're now in the middle of a the one of the largest global stakeholder consultation to develop a 10 to 15 year strategic roadmap for the impact investing industry the report will come out in early next year but I'll just tell and share you know what we know about three things that just need to happen one we need to make impact measurement and management easy to do and easy to understand we have to develop incentives while removing barriers to impact investing so this can be tying compensation to impact or producing developing products that meet investor needs and investing needs and last but not least we need to increase the clarity around what an impact investment is to really maintain the integrity of the practice as well as increasing the clarity of the importance of making impact investments across the risk and return spectrum so I just close by saying that we need trillions of dollars if you're really going to address all the challenges outlined and the aspirations outlined in the sustainable development goals and we really need to scale this practice so with the gym we're committed to developing the infrastructure and tools that I mentioned as well as actively bringing new investors especially large institutional asset owners and help move them in this journey of participating in impact investing that's great yeah and I mean those are some pretty big shifts that I think we're already starting to really see with some really large mainstream financial players sort of entering this space which is great because that has to happen for this for us to reach that scale but I'd ask Patricia you know how does that change the position of Varis and sort of how Varis is long standing role in guiding clients in this way in sort of a changing financial advisory landscape overall what does that look as we try to look like as we try to move all this capital well ideally I mean I we're very excited about the growth of the industry and the main streaming streaming of the industry I think what we bring is to what a Varis brings is a firm that the individuals in the firm are clients we're very committed to all of these issues we're independent we want to stay independence and if as best we can is independent so we're focused on our mission of growing impact investors and having positive impact so I really think what differentiates us is getting continuing to be smarter to get better at what we're doing already to be looking at the issues and staying on top of it I think that the future impact advisor needs to really be able to integrate and clearly integrate and understand the issues of finance of capital how capital could be used differently and the issues that we're working on and I think that that's going to require I think that the impact advisor is going to become a field of its own designation a career that is going to be different than what it is today and that there will really need to be the rigor and understanding of the issues that we're trying to solve I think the other thing that we're really going to want to see as I mentioned a little bit earlier I mean the going forward I mean which is fantastic we're really seeing more and more women millennials younger people driving this driving the innovation we want to be able to build ways of communicating faster with women more information because they ask more questions they're more inquisitive our new investor knows more about investing and impact investing than yesterday's SRI client much more one of the things I would really like to see we're seeing you know focus on work of advisors having more women advisors we're doing well there and our firm you know six of our eight wealth managers or women seeing more people of color and women have ownership of capital firms that are placing capital but what not what we are not seeing yet I think is where what are we doing about we're seeing more focus on the investor base being women how are we working towards that investor base and bringing them in they'll be there but how are we including more people of color in the investor base because women and people of color coming in is going to change the way we look at capital and how it's deployed because their relationship with the capital markets has been is very different than the current relationship with capital markets so we need to be innovative and open and I think that's what's going to differentiate us is we're going to be looking constantly forward is how do we have the most impact and how do we integrate that with capital in a way that is going to meet the needs of the communities and have the communities leading the direction that we're going that's awesome and I think you know Bart you've mentioned some of this as well to me is that that these common the community really is changing you sort of said it in your earlier comments too and when you talk to these business leaders how are they sort of preparing for the future how are they staying ahead and responding to the different needs of their employees the different needs of their clients what does that look like for business leaders so I do think I'm so glad you brought up the 2008 financial crisis because I think it's important as we also look look forward to recognize that the 2008 financial crisis truthfully was a gift to this community honest to God right it changed the narrative to talk about companies with higher standards of transparency accountability and purpose became no longer fringe and so it for belab it believe it or not was an accelerating moment I think Lindsay we're at another historic moment that this room should honestly capitalize on because I would tell you in our interaction we're an a political organization we are neither left nor right when we work with legislators the commonality that we find over and over again as they all believe that business can play a larger role in solving the great challenges in front of us and so I do think despite the chaos that is swirling around all of us there is a silver lining and the silver lining is we are seeing a surge an absolute surge of interest from leaders who want to have a platform who want to have the ability to influence the greater good and so right now we're super excited about what we've seen from a leaders across the globe about wanting to engage and fill the void so that's one's secondly you also mentioned millennials what we're finding that interest is not only because of their desire to lead but also frankly a bit responding to their employees to their staffing what millennials expect from work is very different than what the vast majority of this room expected when you graduated from college they expect both money and meaning from their jobs and so there is an absolute surge we're seeing from millennials looking for organizations that are values aligned which increases attraction and retention for those corporations. Finally I'm glad you mentioned the SDGs because if I if I look more broadly at what could harmonize all of our efforts there seems to be ice I can't be in a room where people don't talk about you know how they relate back to the SDGs and so we have all been looking forever for that right what is the backbone what is the centerpiece upon which we can all rally around we are currently mapping our impact assessment to the SDGs it seems to be a common theme across the front we're working with the UNGC on that to deliver something that a lot of companies to manage a set and improve on the SDGs and so I do think there is a a thread moving forward that we can use through a common platform. It's great it's sort of on the same line you know that it does feel like the time is now it always feels like the time is now though that's what it felt like ten years ago and it feels really like more needed now than ever what is from the Jin's perspective it's sort of unique about this time and let's rally this crowd to get this moving. Yeah sure and you're right I mean that I think that the scope and the urgency of everything that we're trying to solve for is has always maintained the same but I would say what is indisputable now and but you mentioned this historic moment is we can no longer say that we and I don't mean folks only folks in this room but our collective we that we're unaware of all these vast challenges influencing and affecting the communities be it in our backyard or across oceans and we can no longer say that we don't know how to mobilize all the resources that we have to do something about it we do we knew we know how to direct investments to build more affordable housing to power rural villages with clean energy and to increase economic well-being of small holder farmers. So I would say you know what we think of is is what Mark Greer the Jin's chairperson who is the vice chair at Prudential Financial one said that when he sees the difference between now and a decade ago it is the idea that all the problems and the challenges facing the world are someone else's problems that is giving way to the notion that I can do something about it too and I can do it in a way that makes financial financial sense and for all of us in this room who play a role in building this impact investment movement he also said we have an obligation to lead because we know that it works we know that it impacts investing works across asset classes and sectors and geographies so I think this is a truly exciting moment to really think about we get to do this we get to think about how to scale capital in a way that is a powerful instrument for social good. That's awesome so I think that's a great note to end on the magic of StoCAP is that we get groups like this have been around for so long plus all of you who this is your first StoCAP welcome and I'm excited to be celebrating this 10-year anniversary congratulations to all of you on your 10-year anniversary thank you let's give them a round of applause.