1) The Business Logic of Sustainability | Ray Anderson | TEDx (2009)

The first talk is a decade old, but still inspiring. The video description as found on YouTube:

“At his carpet company, Ray Anderson has increased sales and doubled profits while turning the traditional ‘take / make / waste’ industrial system on its head. In a gentle, understated way, he shares a powerful vision for sustainable commerce.”

He shares among others that his company is committed to ‘Mission Zero’: climate-neutral carpet production by 2020. Would be nice to hear next year whether they have succeeded.

2) Sustainable Capitalism | Vivian Bertseka Lemmer | TEDxINSEAD (2016)

Can sustainability be achieved through the market? Yes, says Vivian Bertseka. In this talk she argues that the need for more sustainability drives innovation and it can be a source of competitive advantage for those that adopt it early in their business models, and that smart investors select companies that take sustainability seriously, such as Unilever, as they perform better financially. Her bio as found in the video description on YouTube:

“Vivian Bertseka is a Director at Generation Investment Management, a firm founded 12 years ago around the vision of seeing sustainable, long-term investing become best practice and sustainable capitalism become the enduring economic model. She joined Generation following her MBA at INSEAD in 2011, where she got a chance to take a step back and think about her previous experience in finance and the short-term nature of our capital markets.”

3) Sustainable Investing: What You Didn’t Know Could Make You Money | Karina Funk | TEDxWilmington (2015)

The speaker in the third talk in this post is also an investor that believes that you can save the planet AND make money at the same time. In her talk she gives various examples of how companies gain environmental business advantages by paying attention to sustainability factors. She as well argues that innovation makes it possible to align values that previously seemed incompatible, such as profit and sustainability. Here is the bio of the speaker from the YouTube description:

“Karina Funk, CFA has extensive environmentally-oriented investment experience spanning early-stage ventures to debt and public equities. She was previously an equity research analyst for Winslow Management Co, a principal at Charles River Ventures, and an investment manager at the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust.”

4) The Investment Logic for Sustainability | Chris McKnett | TEDx (2014)

The YouTube description for this fourth TEDx talk:

“Sustainability is pretty clearly one of the world’s most important goals; but what groups can really make environmental progress in leaps and bounds? Chris McKnett makes the case that it’s large institutional investors. He shows how strong financial data isn’t enough, and reveals why investors need to look at a company’s environmental, social and governance structures, too.”

On his LinkedIn profile Chris McKnett describes himself as an “ESG/Sustainability + Investment strategist”