The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a universal call to end poverty, protect the planet and bring peace and prosperity to all. But achieving these goals comes with a hefty price tag, estimated at US$5 to $7 trillion. Development funding alone will not be enough to meet these needs and private capital will be required. Impact investing combines social and environmental objectives with returns to capital providers. Can it help close the SDG funding gap?

Speakers

Alexa Blain

Alexa is co-Founder and COO of Deetken Impact, which manages and distributes impact investment products to Canadian and global investors. Prior to joining Deetken, Alexa was an executive with African Alliance, a pan-African financial services group and an associate with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and the Macquarie Group in Toronto. Recently recognized as one of Vancouver’s Top Forty Under 40 by Business in Vancouver magazine, Alexa is a welcomed speaker on impact investing and champion of improving access to impacting investing alternatives for Canadian investors. Alexa is a CFA Charterholder, a Chartered Business Valuator and holds an MA in Financial Economics from the University of Toronto.

About Deetken Impact Investments

Deetken Impact investments make a positive social and environmental impact in the Americas. We have been committed to impact investing for over 10 years. We began the business investing our own capital in companies serving low income clients in innovative ways; financial services to the unbanked, health care services in remote and rural areas, and low cost renewable energy projects. Over time, our business has grown but our exclusive focus on double and triple bottom line investments has remain unchanged.

One of our funds, the Deetken Impact Fund, is designed for Canadians to invest in a group of businesses that are doing well financially and operating in a way that benefits low income communities in Latin American and the Caribbean. The Fund focuses on three impact themes: entrepreneurship, renewable energy and affordable housing. We offer a variety of investments suited to Canadian individual investors, including RRSP and TFSA eligible bonds.


Cathy Key

As Chief Operations Officer with World Tree, Dr Cathy Key is passionate about making a difference in the world and helping others do the same. She has been instrumental in rolling out the ‘World Tree Carbon Offset Program’ - an impact investment based on growing sustainable timber. She works with investors, environmentalists and farmers in North and Central America inside of a big vision to heal the planet. Cathy has a PhD in Anthropology, specializing in the economics of cooperation. For the past ten years she has been on the faculty of Landmark Worldwide, training people how to create projects that fulfil their own vision of what it looks like to create a world that works for everyone.

About World Tree

World Tree is an innovative agro-forestry based in BC, focused on the global commercialization of the Empress Splendor tree, the fastest growing hardwood tree in the world. Reaching maturity in just 10 years, the tree produces valuable hardwood lumber with a very high strength/weight ratio. The tree is non-invasive, non-GMO and regrows from the stump after harvest.

World Tree, while pursuing its business goals, is also doing something extremely important for the world, our environment and the air we breath. The World Tree Carbon Offset Program is a green investment that provides the ability for people to offset their carbon emissions and make money in the process.


Moderator: Mario Canseco

Mario Canseco is currently the Vice-President of Public Affairs at Insights West, a Vancouver based market research firm. Mario is responsible for designing and managing research projects for clients in the public and education sectors, as well as non-profit organizations and associations. He is also the company’s spokesperson for political and sociological issues and surveys, and writes for the Vancouver Sun, the National Observer and Business in Vancouver.

Before joining Insights West, Mario worked as an editorial researcher for Peter C. Newman’s books “The Secret Mulroney Tapes” and “Here Be Dragons”; as a research and communications specialist for the Liu Institute for Global Issues at UBC; and in various journalistic roles in Canada, Mexico and Spain.