ESG Currents

Sustainability is moving beyond high-level ESG rhetoric and becoming more embedded in how investment mandates and RFPs are structured — but what is actually changing in practice? In this episode of the ESG Currents podcast, Sarika Goel, global head of sustainable investment manager research at Mercer, joins Bloomberg Intelligence Senior ESG Analyst Shaheen Contractor to unpack how sustainability expectations are shifting within investment mandates and manager selection. They explore how ESG requirements are being reframed — and where expectations are tightening or softening. The discussion also examines how these shifts are influencing portfolio construction, from integration to thematic allocations and private markets exposure, as well as regional differences in mandates. Finally, they consider what has remained consistent despite the noise and what the next generation of mandates may look like.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As climate volatility intensifies, water risk is becoming a critical — and often mispriced — factor in investment decisions, particularly across agriculture and real assets. In this episode of the ESG Currents podcast, Bloomberg Intelligence’s Melanie Rua speaks with Catherine Burns of The Nature Conservancy’s NatureVest team and Alyssa Go of RRG Capital Management about how institutional capital is integrating water and climate resilience into investment strategies. They discuss the $900 million Sustainable Water Impact Fund, how nature-based infrastructure can reduce financial risk and what signals could indicate that water risk is being properly priced.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Private markets are becoming an increasingly important frontier for sustainable investing, with mounting interest among allocators and a rapidly evolving landscape. But where are the real opportunities — and how can investors separate substance from storytelling? In this episode of ESG Currents, Northern Trust Asset Management’s Head of Multi-Asset Custom Solutions, Dee Sharma, joins Bloomberg Intelligence Senior ESG Analyst Shaheen Contractor to explore how sustainability is evolving in private markets. They discuss the themes gaining traction and those losing momentum, and what separates credible strategies from box-ticking. They also examine where risks may be mispriced and how demand can evolve over the next five years.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Plastic waste is a mounting challenge around the globe, but nuance required to understand and manage plastic is often ignored. On this episode of the ESG Currents podcast, Svanika Balasubramanian, founder and chief circularity officer of rePurpose Global, joins BI senior integration analyst Gail Glazerman to discuss the scale of the problem, potential key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess plastic exposure and strategies to make solutions profitable enough to attract an estimated $5 trillion in capital required by 2040. This conversation was recorded Feb. 18.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Insurance is essential for the carbon-credit market to unlock capital, manage risk and build trust. On this week’s episode of the ESG Currents podcast, Natalia Dorfman, CEO and co-founder of Kita, joins Eric Kane, director of ESG research at Bloomberg Intelligence, to discuss how her company provides insurance products that aim to unlock institutional investment for high-integrity carbon removal and natural-capital projects. They discuss some of Kita’s key offerings and dive into how they account for the nuances and challenges of these projects, including duration, value and monitoring. They also explore policy developments in the EU, the ramp-up of Article 6 projects and why Dorfman thinks 2026 is the year insurance will come in to handle the complex challenge of carbon-credit permanence.
This episode was recorded on Feb. 9.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.