Mindful Money Announces 2024 Conference and Awards: Mainstreaming Impact and Celebrating Excellence in Ethical and Impact Investing

Conference

This year's conference will focus on mainstreaming investment for positive impact. It builds on Mindful Money’s recent research, and aims to accelerate funding through KiwiSaver and managed funds into New Zealand companies that earn good financial returns while delivering crucial social and environmental benefits.

Mindful Money’s co-CEO, Barry Coates explained: “The growth of KiwiSaver and managed investment funds has created a pool of domestic capital that is currently mainly invested in listed companies globally. Investing part of this capital into financially attractive initiatives in Aotearoa New Zealand could be transformative in meeting our urgent challenges such as the transition to net zero, increased resilience, social housing and environmental regeneration.”

“The conference aims to provide opportunities to  increase understanding of the opportunities and build connections across the impact financing ecosystem.”

The conference will feature keynote speaker Dylan Lawrence, General Manager for the investments team at New Zealand Trade and Enterprise. Dylan leads NZTE’s team that helps international investors discover high-value investment opportunities within Aotearoa New Zealand, and connects New Zealand businesses with the knowledge and networks they need to raise capital and fund international growth. He will provide insights into foreign investment, including into the Māori economy and impact investments, and international growth opportunities for our companies.

Panels

The event will also include two panels that focus on the two issues that have spearheaded the growth of positive impact investing in Aotearoa New Zealand - social and affordable housing and renewable energy.

The panel on ‘Mobilising Investment for Homes’ will feature initiatives that are driving private sector funding into housing developments that meet urgent social needs. Innovative partnerships have been used to support community housing associations to scale up their provision of social housing, and to meet the urgent need for affordable rental homes.

The private sector is driving the energy transition in New Zealand from coal, oil and gas to renewable energy. The panel, "Ramping up Investment in Renewables," will discuss the scaling up of mainstream finance for new solar and wind power developments as well as distributed solutions, such as the pioneering work of SolarZero in rooftop solar.

Roundtable discussions

A key highlight of the conference will be roundtable discussions, drawing on the interests and experience of the audience. They will be facilitated by some of New Zealand's leaders in mainstreaming positive impact investing. These structured discussions will bring diverse actors across fund management, financial advisers and wealth managers, private capital, venture capital, researchers and government to build a stronger understanding of how mainstream funding through KiwiSaver and managed funds can accelerate investment for positive impact.

Attendees at previous conferences have praised the event's ability to foster a sense of community across the ethical and impact investing landscape. One attendee remarked, "I really enjoyed the event format – having a 'mini-conference' theme with some excellent speakers (nice balance of speakers and topics), followed by the awards ceremony and networking. It was a great group of people – felt like a real 'who's who' in this space with a great buzz in the room." The 2024 conference aims to intentionally build on this success.

Annual Awards

Following the conference, the fourth annual Mindful Money Awards ceremony will take place, honouring funds and individuals at the forefront of establishing responsible investing as the new investment standard and positioning impact investing as the progressive vanguard. The awards will be hosted by well-loved New Zealand broadcaster, Jesse Mulligan.

The Mindful Money Awards ceremony will feature a keynote speech from Izzy Fenwick, founder of Futureful, an ESG-based recruitment website, an emerging director for the Aotearoa Circle and a passionate advocate for a youth voice in governance.

An innovation this year is the exciting "People's Choice Award," voted on by members of the public. It is presented in honour of our former head judge, collaborator and friend, Rod Oram. This award allows all New Zealanders to have their say about their favourite ethical fund provider. Voting will launch on the Mindful Money website on the 1st of May.

Barry Coates is anticipating a sold out event: "We are incredibly excited about the 2024 Conference and Awards. Attendees can come to either event, but we hope they will stay for both. The conference will bring together the most influential actors in ethical and impact investing, with the aim of accelerating the growth of mainstream funding for positive impact investment opportunities. It will be followed by a lively celebration of leadership across the investment sector at the awards. At a time of uncertainty, risk and opportunity, the role of ethical and impact investing has never been so important.”

Tickets for the 2024 Mindful Money Conference and Awards are available now at https://events.humanitix.com/mindful-money-conference-and-awards-2024

For more information and updates, please visit the Mindful Money website.

2024 Award categories:

• Best Climate Action Investor
• Best Media Reporting on Ethical and/or Impact Investment
• Best Ethical Financial Adviser
• Best Ethical KiwiSaver Provider
• People's Choice Award (honouring the late Rod Oram)
• Best Ethical Investor
• Best New Ethical Fund 2024
• Best Overseas Fund
• Best Impact Investor

Sponsors:

Mindful Money has secured generous support for the conference from our principal sponsor, the New Zealand Super Fund, and from Artesian/Devon Funds, Bay Trust, Booster, Generate, Craigs Investment Partners, Moneyworks, New Ground, Stewart Investors, Milford and Trust Management.

The Mindful Money Awards are brought to you by our principal sponsors Public Trust and Sustainalytics, and by Australian Ethical, Bay Trust, Convergence Partners, Milford, Stewart Investors, and Trust Management.