Green Bond Opportunities for Philanthropic Foundations

Joshua Humphreys, Christi Electris, David Roswell

Contributors:
Fern Jones, Dan Apfel, Kristin Lang

June 2015

This report provides an overview on green bonds, the projects they finance, the challenges the market is facing, and the opportunities for foundations to support the market as it rapidly takes off. It builds upon a broader, year-long inquiry conducted by Clean Energy Group and Croatan Institute into the nature of institutional investor demand for green bonds, which involved consultations with more than 50 investors, portfolio managers, foundation officers, underwriters, and other experts in the field, including at a side event to the United Nations Climate Summit held at the Surdna Foundation in September 2014.

The study provides case studies of The Sierra Club Foundation and the Wallace Global Fund, two leading signatories to the Divest-Invest Philanthropy initiative that have integrated green bonds into their investment strategy as part of commitments to divest from fossil fuels and invest in climate solutions. These are only a few examples of foundations that are actively investing in green bonds to align their investments more fully with their mission.