Designing Portfolios for Investment and Nature Returns

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Dear IFB Global Family,

On Friday, April 17 from 09:00 a.m. - 10:15 a.m. EST-New York, as part of our ongoing Nature based Solutions programming, we are hosting session 4 in our series on Making Complexity Investable: The Plastics Transition as a Systemic Case. This session, Systemic Investing in Practice: Designing Portfolios for Investment and Nature Returns, is led by Joseph Naayem from Kalmus Capital and Hari Balasubramanian from EcoAdvisors.

Building on the prior 3 sessions, and greater awareness of the need for a plastics transition (see Netflix trailer: The Plastic Detox), and investing in nature as infrastructure, this 4th session examines how investment approaches themselves may need to evolve when dealing with systemic challenges. The conversation will reflect on what the plastics case reveals about nature-related investing more generally and reframes the ocean not only as a victim of environmental degradation but as productive infrastructure within economic systems. The discussion highlights how similar dynamics apply across biodiversity, land use, and resource transitions.

Joe and Hari will contrast traditional, linear investment processes with more inverted approaches that start from a defined system outcome and work backwards to identify where capital, coordination, and capability matter most. 

The discussion explores how asset classes can be reframed as enablers rather than endpoints, and how portfolio construction itself becomes the primary lever of impact rather than a collection of individual exposures. The conversation will examine how complexity can be structured rather than avoided, drawing on the idea that systemic transitions require simultaneous progress across science, supply chains, policy, and capital. Particular attention will be given to how emerging analytical tools, including AI-enabled approaches, make it increasingly possible to reason across silos, test scenarios, and design value creation ex ante rather than retrofitting impact once “bankable” assets are identified.

Rather than presenting a single model or solution, the session is designed as an open, participatory dialogue. The aim is to equip participants with clearer mental models for navigating complexity, coordinating capital, and rethinking investment processes in a world where systemic change is no longer optional.

Core Themes & Questions:

• What changes when investment processes are designed around outcomes rather than assets?
• How does portfolio construction become a lever for impact and risk management in systemic transitions?
• Why diversification can emerge from solving for one outcome, rather than spreading thematic bets.
• How can investors engage with complexity without sacrificing fiduciary discipline?
• What lessons from plastics apply across other nature-linked investment themes?

Who Should Attend?

This session is designed for investors, family offices, and ecosystem builders who recognise that plastics is not just an environmental issue, but a system-design and capital-allocation challenge. It will be particularly relevant for participants with exposure to operating companies, supply chains, or regulated industries who face increasing pressure to respond to plastics transition risks but cannot act in isolation. The discussion is intended for those interested in how coordination, not just capital, determines whether large-scale transitions succeed.

Takeaways:

• Insight into simplifying complex systems change by reframing plastics and oceans from an environmental issue to a system constraint that reshapes how capital must be allocated.
• Shift from treating impact investing as asset selection toward understanding it as system design, coordination, and sequencing across value chains.
• How leveraging AI allows us to reimagine the investment process itself: moving from optimizing individual investments to starting with system-level constraints and working backward to portfolio construction and capital deployment.

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/6s_9e1RCTJiEInsoVaWUFQ

We look forward to your participation.

Keyvan & The IFB Global Team

e: Keyvan.izadi@impactforbreakfast.com