Our Climate Commitment for COP26
COP26 is happening in Glasgow, and this round of the United Nations climate change negotiations will be more important than ever. By the end, we’ll know how far nations are willing to go in the fight against climate change.
As a social enterprise and proud BCorp member, here at Lendahand we want to lead by example. We are already committed to being NetZero by 2030 but it’s time to put our money where our mouth is by sharing our progress and commitments publicly. We will review this statement annually to assess our progress and adjust our trajectory to ensure that we stay on track.
Our climate impact so far
Lendahand and Ethex - our partner in the UK with whom we launched Energise Africa in 2017- have worked for nearly a decade with the express purpose of enabling everyday people to put their money directly to work for people and the planet.
People-powered affordable financing allows everyday people to help alleviate poverty, build resilient communities and reduce climate change. We strive to make it possible for everyone to invest positively and facilitate this by making investing easy to understand.
Our investment platforms have achieved some fantastic results, providing impactful organisations with the critical financing they need to accelerate the achievement of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Our combined climate impact so far
- Over €175 million invested into extraordinary organizations, pioneering innovative climate solutions in the renewable energy, agriculture, sustainable transport and housing sectors across 28 countries and 5 continents.
- 723,000 tonnes of CO2 are mitigated each year thanks to investments made on our platforms.
- 30,000 people across Europe and the UK directly investing their money in organizations contributing positively for a better world.
- Over 900,000 people in emerging markets have been provided with access to clean, affordable energy.
How we integrate climate in our business strategies
Across our platforms, our business models are built on mobilizing retail finance for the SDGs. Our focus over the next few years is to rapidly expand and replicate our offerings, accelerating climate solutions by scaling up the amount of people-powered financing we raise.
Our focus in 2022
- Developing a range of financial products and tools to enable each platform to raise financing for a more diverse range of sustainable and climate focused businesses operating across more sectors and more geographies.
- Continuing to work with governments, foundations and institutions in innovative ways to make catalytic climate finance more accessible to sustainable businesses.
- Providing retail investors across Europe and the UK with a greater choice of transparent, easily accessible and risk-mitigated financial products that enable them to realise the power of their money when it comes to protecting the planet.
- Finding the right balance between the social impact (job creation and poverty alleviation) investments through our platform can make and the impact on climate change.
To lead by example, our company policies encourage team members to use bikes and/or public transport wherever possible, not just in their travel for work. Where we don’t have a choice, we have adopted a policy to offset company flights.
However, we recognize that there is always room for improvement, and therefore,we will be conducting baseline measurements of our CO2 emissions across all three companies. We will share the results of this work publicly (on our websites) alongside our strategy for how we plan to meet and exceed wider global targets, by reducing our emissions to achieve NetZero by 2030.
As well as looking at our own CO2 emissions, we will look at emissions across the supply chain, and work with our suppliers, and the businesses we support, to identify more ways to reduce emissions.
Where we can’t eliminate emissions in our supply chain, we are committed to investing in projects which will offset any residual emissions, and by 2025, we aim to not only make our own investments into such projects, but offer carbon accredited investment opportunities via our platforms too.
Exciting times for climate focused retail impact investing
We believe that our joint commitment to achieving net-zero by 2030 across each of our three platforms will help to drive transformational change across the financial sector. We are empowering people across Europe and the UK to invest their money in line with their climate values and we believe that this movement towards climate positive investing will send a strong message about where people believe their money should go.
Working with our investors and our investees to take action on climate change is not only necessary and achievable, but represents an exciting opportunity for innovation in technology and finance, which will bring significant benefits for us all, contributing to the achievement of all the SDGs and in particular help realize more equitable societies around the world.
We hope that you will join us on this journey!