ES 739 Sustainable Finance: Impact Investment An Asset Class Review Course Description Evidence suggests that many institutions around the globe are experimenting with new forms of "impact" investment designed to generate both market rate returns and positive social and environmental impact. The idea of using profit-seeking investment for this dual purpose is moving from the periphery of activist investors to the core of mainstream financial institutions. This course intends to explore the progress of and challenges to this trend within the context of institutional portfolio management. Investment strategies that create both market rate returns and positive social and environmental impact will be reviewed, as will strategies at different stages of development in their progress towards placement in institutional investor portfolios. Selected topics include renewable energy project finance, clean tech venture capital, energy efficiency project finance, micro-finance, and carbon and environmental service investment strategies. Each week, investment professionals executing these investment strategies will 1) discuss their process for evaluating, valuing and structuring deals and 2) review the challenges they face or progress they have made attracting institutional investors while integrating financial return with social and environmental impact. Critical questions to be explored: Can an investment strategy focused on generating superior financial return also create positive change in the environment and society? How are investment grade financial instruments and solutions being developed to address challenges and opportunities within climate change, natural resource constraints, and Base of the Economic Pyramid demographics? How do investors evaluate, value and structure deals for renewable energy projects, clean tech venture capital, energy efficiency projects, micro-finance, and carbon and environmental service investment strategies? Are institutional investors incorporating financial instruments designed to generate market rate returns and positive social / environmental impact into their portfolios? Why or why not? What additional development needs to take place in order to have broader adoption by investors? Enrollment and Prerequisites Because this course is project-based with class participation, the enrollment cap is 40 students, with 10 groups of three to five students each. Students who take this course may want to have a background in environmental science and finance with some thematic knowledge of civil society and public policy trends. There are no specific prerequisites for this course, although students are expected to have some understanding of environmental science, ecosystem services and finance. Class Project Students working in groups of four to five students present final class projects by PowerPoint to the class. Students will be expected to wear business formal for their presentations. Each presentation will be a maximum of 20 minutes, formatted and edited to professional standards. Top presentations / papers may be distributed online within the greater business community globally. The themes for the student groups will be: ES 739 Sustainable Finance: Impact Investment - An Asset Class Review 3/8/2016 Page #1 Cleantech venture capital Forest carbon Energy efficiency finance Renewable energy project finance Microfinance Students will organize themselves into groups the first day of class. Preferably there will be two student groups per theme. Two Options (select one): 1) In a PowerPoint presented to the class, provide a critique of two investment strategies of two different investment intermediaries that seek to generate market financial return and social / environmental impact. The two intermediaries should be in different asset classes. Particular attention should be paid to the following: Market opportunity Target investment criteria Investment hypothesis Process by which financial return will be generated Process by which environmental/social impact is created Due diligence process Critical risks Deal selection process Monitoring protocols for environmental and social impact 2) Create a financial vehicle (e.g. private equity fund, debt instrument, etc) capable of fitting within an asset allocation of institutional investor portfolios (e.g. venture capital, timber, private equity, real estate, fixed income, public equities, etc) while delivering social / environmental impact. Choose from one of the following: Water / wastewater Green affordable housing SME lending for the BOP Waste Forest carbon Your topic of choice Students will be expected to present the following in a PowerPoint to the class: What asset class the vehicle fits in Clear definition of market opportunity Target investment criteria Investment hypothesis o Process by which financial return will be generated o Process by which environmental/social impact is created Due diligence process Financial modeling to substantiate investment hypothesis Identification of critical risks Deal selection process ES 739 Sustainable Finance: Impact Investment - An Asset Class Review 3/8/2016 Page #2 Monitoring protocols for environmental and social impact Grading Students will be graded based in the following format: 30% Class participation and required reading 25% One five-page (well written with sourcing using an accepted academic sourcing style) GROUP paper, font 12, 1 inch margins, Times New Roman that details the risk / return model for the fund / financial instrument you are building or the intermediaries you are reviewing. You need to: o identify the contemplated return for the fund (s) and explain how it is created o identify & discuss the risks/issues associated with generating that return o identify & discuss mitigants/solutions to the risks/issues This is due at the beginning of the fifth class in hardcopy and online. 45% Final project PPT / group paper Please note specific punctuality, absence, and telephony policy which may seriously impact your grade Class Expectations In addition to the final deliverable, the coursework involves an extensive reading syllabus and active class participation. Students will be allowed one class absence. Greater than one absence will result in failing the class with no exceptions. Classes will start on time precisely at the time listed in the schedule. Students who are late will be penalized by decreasing their grades. Grace period will be five minutes. No internet, blackberry, or cell phones will be allowed to be used in the room during class time. Each class will have one coffee break. Credits: Time: Instructors: Office Hours: 1.5 3 hours, meets seven times Gabriel Thoumi, Project Developer, Forest Carbon Offsets, LLC Kipp Baratoff, Principal, Equilibrium Capital Group, LLC Mike Hokenson, Managing Director, Minlam Asset Management LLC Jon Koch, Managing Director, US Renewables Group Ryan Waddington, Director, ZBI Ventures Monday and Friday afternoons each week upon request. Course Schedule Overview Week 1 Week 2 Theme Intro Clean tech VC Lecturer Baratoff / Waddingt Thoumi on / Thoumi Thursday Mar 11 Mar 18 Homework Reading Reading and cases Groups decided Week 3 Energy Efficiency Finance Baratoff / Thoumi Week 4 RE Project Finance Koch / Thoumi Mar 25 Reading Apr 1 Reading Week 5 Forest Carbon Week 6 Microfina nce Thoumi Hokenson / Thoumi Week 7 Portfolio Students / Thoumi / Others Apr 8 Apr 15 Apr 22 Reading Reading Reading and 5- PPT / PPT / page Paper Paper to paper rough instructor ES 739 Sustainable Finance: Impact Investment - An Asset Class Review 3/8/2016 Page #3 upon with theme approved by instructor one day before class by email due draft to one day instructor before by email class by email Week #1: Overview and framework Instructed by Kipp Baratoff and Gabriel Thoumi, visited by Ryan Waddington. Attended by Laura Berdish so as to introduce her role as research librarian and for student teams to meet with her between class 1 and class 2. Objectives To define impact investing and portfolio management To frame the investment continuum of opportunities in impact investment To understand the challenges and opportunities of impact investing To understand sustainability in the context of today’s investment vehicles and capital markets To provide an overview of the financial products / asset classes that will be discussed in each of the remaining courses Reading Pioneering Portfolio Management: An Unconventional Approach to Institutional Investment, by David Swenson – Chapter 4: Asset Allocation Investing for Social & Environmental Impact, by the Monitor Institute. 2009 Handbook on Responsible Investment Across Asset Classes, Boston College Institute for Responsible Investment. 2007. Aggregating Impact: A Funder’s Guide to Mission Investment Intermediaries. FSG Social Impact Advisors, 2007. Solutions for Impact Investors (2009 - RPA) Fortifying the Foundation: State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2009 (co-author Allison Shapiro Erb ’12) http://www.forest-trends.org/documents/files/doc_2343.pdf (review) Forest Carbon Portal http://www.forestcarbonportal.com/ (review) Little REDD Book http://www.globalcanopy.org/themedia/file/PDFs/LRB_lowres/lrb_en.pdf (read) Little Climate Finance Book http://www.globalcanopy.org/main.php?m=117&sm=224&t=1 (read) Week #2: Clean tech / venture capital Instructed by Ryan Waddington. Objectives Through class readings, discussion and a exploration of a series of case studies, students will investigate the following questions, among others: ES 739 Sustainable Finance: Impact Investment - An Asset Class Review 3/8/2016 Page #4 How do venture capitalists decide what companies to invest in? What makes cleantech a compelling sector for investment? What will drive cleantech in the future? How do investors integrate sustainability criteria into their decision-making process? Are cleantech investors “sustainability” investors? Are the most successful cleantech companies also the most sustainable? Reading Each of the following reports/articles should be read and students should be prepared to discuss in class. Venture Impact Report and Venture Capital 101 (2009), IHS Global Insight US Venture Capital Index and Selected Benchmark Statistics (2009), NVCA and Cambridge Associates Toward a Model of Venture Capital Investment Decision Making (1994), Vance Fried and Robert Hisrich, Financial Management Clean Energy Trends 2004, Clean Edge Clean Energy Trends 2009, Clean Edge Clean Tech: Profits and Potential (2001), Clean Edge Earth, Wind and Fire: A Cleantech Perspective (2007), SVB Alliant Case Studies Case study materials will be made available a couple weeks before the class. Note that the list of companies below is tentative. Altra Biofuels EnerNOC FirstSolar GreenFuel Mascoma Tesla Websites Please at least scan these websites and familiarize yourself with what is happening in cleantech. Bloomberg New Energy Finance – www.newenergymatters.com CleanEdge – www.cleanedge.com Cleantech Group – www.cleantech.com Greentech Media – www.greentechmedia.com Cleantech Venture Funds Please review the websites of these leading cleantech VCs, including their investment strategies and portfolio of investments. Advanced Technology Ventures – www.atvcapital.com Altira Group – www.altiragroup.com Angeleno Group – www.angelenogroup.com @Ventures – www.ventures.com Battery Ventures – www.battery.com Braemar Energy Ventures – www.braemarenergy.com CMEA Capital – www.cmea.com ES 739 Sustainable Finance: Impact Investment - An Asset Class Review 3/8/2016 Page #5 Element Partners – www.elementpartners.com EnerTech Capital – www.enertechcapital.com Globespan Capital Partners – www.globespancapital.com Good Energies – www.goodenergies.com Khosla Ventures – www.khoslaventures.com KleinerPerkins – www.kpcb.com Lightspeed Ventures Partners – www.lightspeedvp.com Mohr Davidow Ventures – www.mdv.com NGEN Partners - www.ngenpartners.com Nth Power – www.nthpower.com RockPort Capital – www.rockportcap.com Technology Partners – www.technologypartners.com VantagePoint Venture Partners – www.vpvp.com Week #3: Financing Energy Efficiency Instructed by Kipp Baratoff and assisted by Gabriel Thoumi. Objectives To provide overview of energy efficiency opportunity in the US To understand four financing mechanisms for energy efficiency o Property Assessment Clean Energy (PACE) o On-bill financing o Performance Contracting o energy efficiency Power Purchase Agreements To explore how to create a financial product for the mainstream capital markets capable of scaling energy efficiency to its full market potential To understand energy efficiency in the context of impact investment Reading Berkeley First program: http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=26580 Property Assessed Clean Energy: http://www.renewfund.com/ Unlocking Energy Efficiency in the US Economy, by McKinsey & Co. 2009 – (the Executive Summary) Rebuilding America: A National Policy Framework for Investment in Energy Efficiency Retrofits, by Center For American Progress. 2009 A Survey of the U.S. ESCO Industry: Market Growth and Development from 2000 to 2006, by Hopper, et al. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. 2007. City of Portland’s Energy Efficiency Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) Application – 2009 eePPA – [will be white paper if published by then or PPT] 2010 Week #4: Renewable Energy Project Finance Instructed by Jon Koch and assisted by Gabriel Thoumi. Objectives Provide overview of private equity market landscape focused on renewable energy a. Market Drives b. Funds ES 739 Sustainable Finance: Impact Investment - An Asset Class Review 3/8/2016 Page #6 c. Limited Partners Project Development Process Renewable Energy Project Finance Deal Process and Agreements Case Studies Readings Links to reading assignment to be provided in advance of class. Week #5: Forests and climate Instructed by Gabriel Thoumi. Objectives This class is an introduction to the forest carbon markets instructed by Gabriel Thoumi. Students will need to come to class having read the materials and with a deliverable of a financial model assessing the internal rate of return on the Tasmania project including non-timber forest products, timber, hunting, carbon, water quality rights, grazing, and feed. It is expected that the students will incorporate the financial accounting analysis of the Thoumi / Haller paper in their financial models. From this point, students will be introduced to the forest carbon offset asset value chain. Other topics such as forest carbon offset asset insurance, biodiversity offsets, nutrient trading rights, and species banking will also be discussed. Given that this is a growing sector, exceptional and dedicated students may be assisted with obtaining industry relevant internships and publishing opportunities. Readings Voluntary Carbon Standard AFOLU Guidance (http://v-c-s.org/docs/Guidance for AFOLU Projects.pdf) http://www.markitenvironmental.com/market.php Bank of New York Mellon Global Environmental Markets platform (http://www.bankofny.com/CpTrust/data/GEMinsert.pdf) Climate, Community, Biodiversity Standards (http://www.climatestandards.org/standards/pdf/ccb_standards_second_edition_december_2008.pdf) Reducing Carbon Emissions by Protecting a Native Forest in Tasmania project design document (http://www.climatestandards.org/projects/files/tasmania/REDD_Forests_CCB_PDD_FINAL_071609.pdf) (partially written by Thoumi) and validation report (http://www.climatestandards.org/projects/files/tasmania/CCB_REDDForests_RPT_ValidationReport_071709.pdf) Financial accounting for forest carbon offsets asset research paper by Talitha Haller (MAcc ’09) and Thoumi (http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1116-haller-thoumi_forest_carbon.html) http://www.scscertified.com/nrc/index.php http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/climate.cfm?id=international_standards Species Banking http://speciesbanking.com/ Nutrient Trading Rights http://www.nutrientnet.org/trading.cfm Ecosystem Marketplace http://www.ecosystemmarketplace.com/ Mongabay http://www.mongabay.com/ Business and Biodiversity Offsets Program http://bbop.forest-trends.org/ ES 739 Sustainable Finance: Impact Investment - An Asset Class Review 3/8/2016 Page #7 ForestRe, insurance and reinsurance for forest carbon and tree crops http://www.forestre.com/main.php State of the Forest Carbon Markets 2009: Taking Root & Branching Out http://www.ecosystemmarketplace.com/pages/dynamic/article.page.php?page_id=7415&secti on=news_articles&eod=1 Additional resources (many more than those listed) Easy Steps to Developing a Forestry Carbon Project with Gabriel Thoumi, Senior Business Development Manager Global Forestry Director, MGM International (http://netimpactissues.org/issues/?p=182) Emeralds on the Equator: An Avoided Deforestation Carbon Markets Strategy Manual by Thoumi – in English, French, Indonesian, Portuguese, and Spanish (http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0122-thumi_avoided_deforestation.html) Climate Change and Forests: Emerging Policy and Market Opportunities by Toby Janson-Smith, Ross MBA ’96 and others (on reserve) Stabenow Amendment Climate Action Reserve Forest Protocol (http://www.climateactionreserve.org/how/protocols/adopted/forest/current/) Forests and Climate (http://environment.yale.edu/tfd/dialogues/forests-and-climate/) BioCarbon Fund (http://wbcarbonfinance.org/Router.cfm?Page=BioCF&ItemID=9708&FID=9708) Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (http://www.forestcarbonpartnership.org/fcp/) UN REDD (http://www.un-redd.org/) United Nations Forum on Forests (http://www.un.org/esa/forests/) Carbon Fix Standard (http://www.carbonfix.info/chameleon//outbox//public/55/CFS_Brochure_PDF.pdf) Voluntary Carbon Markets: An International Business Guide to What They Are and How They Work by Ricardo Bayon et al. (on reserve) Strategic Innovation: New Game Strategies for Competitive Advantage by Allan Afuah, Ross School of Business (on reserve) A Field Guide to Conservation Finance by Story Clark (on reserve) Walden to Wall Street: Frontiers of Conservation Finance by James Levitt (on reserve) Conservation Finance Handbook by Kim Hopper & Ernest Cook (on reserve) Investing in Nature by William Ginn (on reserve) Week #6: Microfinance and Its Development as an Institutional Investment Opportunity Instructed by Michael Hokenson and assisted by Gabriel Thoumi. Objectives To grasp the financial and extra-financial characteristics of microfinance and BoP investment activity; To comprehend the arc of development and the spectrum of financing in microfinance from subsidized to commercial investment; To understand how microfinance investment vehicles (MIVs) can fit into modern portfolios; and To explore the future of microfinance investment activity. Reading ES 739 Sustainable Finance: Impact Investment - An Asset Class Review 3/8/2016 Page #8 Read Commercial Returns at the Base of the Pyramid by Michael Chu, Harvard University, 2007 Read The Time Is Right for U.S. Institutional Investors, Susan Salerno and Clara Lipson, Microfinance Insights, Aug 2009 Read Microfinance Investment Funds: Analysis of Portfolio Impact, O. Oehri and J. Fausch, Hochschuelle Liechtenstein, World Microfinance Forum Geneva, October 2008 Web research on Impact Investing and new developments in microfinance Week #7: Integration into a portfolio - final presentations and research papers submitted Instructed by Kipp Baratoff and Gabriel Thoumi, may be visited by other instructors. Students present final class projects by PowerPoint to the class. Students will be expected to wear business formal for their presentations. Each presentation will be a maximum of 20 minutes, edited for English, formatted professionally, and 20 minutes long. If presentations are shorter than 18 minutes and longer than 21 minutes, the presentations will have their grades decreased. ES 739 Sustainable Finance: Impact Investment - An Asset Class Review 3/8/2016 Page #9 Biographies Ryan Waddington, Director, ZBI Ventures, Erb MBA / MSc ‘99 Ryan is a Director at ZBI Ventures, the private equity arm of Ziff Brothers Investments, LLC (ZBI). ZBI is a multi-billion dollar private investment firm that manages the assets of the Ziff family, formerly of Ziff-Davis publishing. ZBI Ventures invests in energy assets and technology companies with a primary focus on unconventional oil and gas, biofuels, solar and other carbon-favored energy sources. Before joining ZBI, Ryan was Director of Venture Services for NextEnergy, a non-profit corporation founded to advance the alternative energy technology industry in the State of Michigan . There he developed and managed Michigan's only business accelerator program and seed fund focused exclusively on alternative and clean energy technologies. Prior to joining NextEnergy, Ryan spent over six years at DTE Energy Company (NYSE: DTE) where he identified, evaluated and managed clean energy technology investments in DTE Energy's $100 million corporate venture capital fund (DTE Energy Ventures), as well as managed several advanced energy technology demonstration projects. Ryan has also worked as an environmental engineer, and cofounded a start-up company, GetOutdoors.com. Ryan earned a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan and an M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Wisconsin. He also earned an MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, where he participated in the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise. Ryan currently serves on the Board of ZBI Ventures' portfolio company Advent Solar and the External Advisory Board for the Erb Institute. Ryan has lectured and taught courses on energy and energy technology at the University of Michigan. Jonathan Koch, Managing Director, US Renewables Group, Erb MBA / MSc ‘96 Jonathan is a Managing Director and co-founder of the Firm, and is based in New York. Prior to joining USRG, Mr. Koch was COO for Visible Path, a Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers funded application service provider. He was the founder and CEO of Sundial, a leader in provisioning utility services online. Sundial was acquired by Essential.com, an early entrant into retail power marketing and telecommunications, and later sold to InPhonic (NASDAQ: INPC). Prior to founding Sundial, Mr. Koch was a Business Development Manager at General Electric Power Systems (“GEPS”). Prior to GEPS, Mr. Koch spent more than five years with Booz, Allen & Hamilton consulting on large M&A transactions in the energy and life sciences sectors and advising the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA“) on policy issues in the Superfund, Clean Air and Drinking Water divisions. Mr. Koch holds a joint MBA and MS in Resource Policy from the University of Michigan and a BA from Tufts University. Kipp Baratoff, Principal & Founding Member, Equilibrium Capital Group, Erb MBA / MSc ‘07 Kipp has charted a professional career at the intersection of finance and sustainability for over a decade. He joined Equilibrium Capital Group in late 2007 to help establish the investment firm focused on growth equity investing and financial product innovation in sustainability. Currently working in an operating role, Kipp serves as President of Gerding ES 739 Sustainable Finance: Impact Investment - An Asset Class Review 3/8/2016 Page #10 Edlen Sustainable Solutions (GESS), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Equilibrium portfolio company, Gerding Edlen Development, Inc. – the leading green building developer in the United States. GESS is a resource efficiency company that provides comprehensive retrofit services to large institutional public and private real estate portfolio owners. Prior to Equilibrium, Kipp worked at two leading emerging market public purpose investment funds (Acumen Fund and E+Co) pioneering innovative debt and equity financings to achieve sustainability and poverty alleviation in developing countries. At Cambridge Associates, LLC, in addition to specializing in all aspects of portfolio monitoring, planning and investing for several large universities and pension plans’ dedicated private equity programs, Kipp spearheaded the firm’s initial research in clean energy venture capital in 2004 and helped advise a large U.S. pension fund with a $250 million allocation to clean technology. Kipp is a CFA charter holder, earned his B.A. from Wesleyan University, and attended the University of Michigan where he earned an M.B.A. from the Ross School of Business and an M.S. Environmental Science from the School of Natural Resources & Environment. Michael Hokenson, Managing Director, Minlam Asset Management, Erb MBA / MS ‘05 Michael Hokenson is Managing Director - Marketing and Co-Founder of Minlam Asset Management. Mr. Hokenson has been involved with emerging market entrepreneurial ventures and the microfinance industry since 1997. He has been published on the profitability of microfinance institutions in The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid by C.K. Prahalad. Mr. Hokenson graduated from the Erb Institute of Global Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan, earning an M.B.A. at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business and a M.S. in Environmental Science at the School of Natural Resources and Environment. He received his B.A. in Mathematics and Philosophy from St. John's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Gabriel, Thoumi, Project Developer, Forest Carbon Offsets, LLC, Erb MBA / MSc ‘08 Gabriel provides global technical and commercial forestry carbon offset asset business development consulting in the compliance and voluntary carbon markets, specializing in forestry carbon credit design, implementation, and commercialization. He frequently presents at conferences such as Copenhagen COP 15, International Emissions Trading Association, Stewardship Network, and others. He also regularly publishes on technical and business market developments in the forest carbon space. He is a member of The Forests Dialogue (www.theforestsdialogue.org) having participated onsite in meetings in the Balkans, Nepal, and Switzerland. He is also a trained forest auditor for Forest 3.1 and Urban Forest Protocols for the Climate Action Reserve. He is on the Peat Rewetting and Conservation Voluntary Carbon Standard technical review team and on the Jui Zhou China Panda Standard AFOLU technical review team. He has conducted technical reviews of the climate changes bills in the U.S. Congress and was previously Global Forest Director at MGM International, a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley. Gabriel has also worked at American Express, Wells Fargo Institutional Brokerage and Sales and Correspondent Banking, and Intel Corporation. He has a Graduate Certificate in Real Estate Development from the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan and speaks Indonesian and Spanish. Gabriel graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Maryland. ES 739 Sustainable Finance: Impact Investment - An Asset Class Review 3/8/2016 Page #11