Valuing Nature: A Handbook for Impact Investing

There has been an increasing awareness that to help solve the climate issue, it is going to take the deep pockets of investors who are willing to invest in projects rather than just pure philanthropy or government regulation. In his new book, William Ginn looks at how The Nature Conservancy developed investing models, its own investment fund, and other ways of investing to solve some of the biggest environmental issues that the planet is facing, while at the same time delivering returns to investors. While it might be harder for smaller groups to follow the same model, since The Nature Conservancy is a behemoth, Ginn provides some suggestions for investors who wish to make a difference and might struggle to know how.

The book is not perfect. It really just focuses on The Nature Conservancy, specifically the projects that Ginn worked on. There is really no talk of how this could work through individual investors, whether they buy individual stocks or mutual funds, though pension funds and other national funds could invest in these projects. It often feels to much like a press release for The Nature Conservancy and not too much digging beneath the surface.