Sustainable Forestry Investing: New Forests' Head of Impact & Advocacy, Radha Kuppalli on her Carbon Forestry Strategy, Climate Change Mitigation, Carbon Finance, the Bio-economy & More…(#015)

SRI360 | Socially Responsible Investing, ESG, Impact Investing, Sustainable Investing

Radha Kuppalli is Managing Director of Impact and Advocacy at New Forests, a leading asset manager in institutional funds management business, providing forestry and land-based investment solutions through sustainable forestry investments. Her 20-year career has been focused on driving capital markets toward investing in climate change solutions and sustainable development.
Radha is a director of the Board of New Forests Pty Ltd, member of the company’s Executive Committee, and a member of all Investment Committees. She is also a Non-Executive Director for Timberlink Australia and Greening Australia and chairs Greening Australia’s investment committee. She earned an MBA and a Masters in Environmental Management from Yale, serves on the university’s Advisory Board at the Center for Business and Environment, and is an associate of the Yale World Fellows Program.
In this episode, we discuss Radha’s studies, her early career, the ‘sliding doors’ moments that led to her working at Natsource and joining New Forests back in 2006, and how Radha’s care for the environment has shaped her career. We learn how New Forests select their investments, who their typical investors are and the attractions of investing in forestry as an asset class. We discuss New Forests’ three main regions and the different approaches used in each. And we talk about the California Cap and Trade Scheme emissions trading system, conservation easements, repatriating land back to the Yurok tribe and much more.
Show notes: https://sri360.com/podcast/radha-kuppalli
About the SRI 360° Podcast: The SRI 360° Podcast is focused exclusively on sustainable & responsible investing. In each episode, Scott Arnell interviews a world-class investor who is an accomplished practitioner from all asset classes. In my interviews, I cover everything from their early personal journeys—and what motivated and attracted them to commit their life energy to SRI—to insights on how they developed and executed their investment strategies and what challenges they face today. Each episode is a chance to go way below the surface with these impressive people and gain additional insights and useful lessons from professional investors.
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Rozdziały

1. Radha describes her education and how she came to earn two degrees in just four years (00:04:52)

2. Radha shares how she became involved in the carbon markets back in 2001 and how there has been a common thread of climate and carbon throughout her career. (00:07:51)

3. Radha tells us how her care and passion for the environment has been the driving force in her career (00:08:55)

4. Radha describes a ‘sliding doors’ moment, when a chance conversation with Carlos Lozata led to her working for Natsource (00:09:58)

5. Why Radha chose to return to studying, taking a Masters in Environmental Management at Yale (00:11:04)

6. We hear how another ‘sliding doors’ moment led to Radha joining New Forests in 2006 (00:12:35)

7. How Radha came to set up New Forests in the US in 2007 (00:14:33)

8. We discuss Radha’s various professional association roles (00:17:41)

9. An overview of New Forests, their typical investors and what makes them unique (00:21:49)

10. We hear about New Forests’ various Funds (00:27:36)

11. How New Forests use third party certifications to ensure Responsible Investment (00:29:05)

12. Radha outlines the traditional attractions of forestry as an asset class (00:29:45)

13. We hear how New Forests select their investments and the type of screens used (00:37:16)

14. The US ‘Carbon Forestry Strategy’ and how it is used (00:41:47)

15. We discuss New Forests three main regions and how the approach is slightly different in each (00:42:17)

16. We hear about California’s ‘Forest Carbon Protocol’ and how it creates an incentive to maintain carbon stocks (00:43:56)

17. We discuss Conservation Easements and a New Forests transaction that helped repatriate land back to the Yurok tribe (00:47:00)

18. We hear Radha’s views on major climate change risks in forestry (00:50:09)

19. The single most important challenge in the sustainable real asset space at this time (01:01:39)

20. What Radha knows now about sustainable investment and impact investing that she wishes she had known when she started at New Forests (01:01:51)

21. Lessons learned from an investment that didn’t go to plan (01:02:24)

22. An example of an investment that worked out better than expected (01:04:18)