Longwave Fall ESG Impact Newsletter
It's sweater weather and the perfect moment to embrace hygge hibernation. Transition seasons are a wonderful time to leave behind what you don't need and enter the coming months with only what you want to take into the future.
In this autumnal issue of the Longwave Impact newsletter, you'll find:
Fall sustainability tips
Spotlight on 1% for the Planet
Is AI green? Brandon explores this brave new world
Green Living
The foliage is turning but you can stay green with tips that help make the most of the season.
Leave those Leaves: Fallen foliage can be composted or used as mulch around the base of trees or top of flower beds, insulating the soil during winter.
Light those Candles: You can scent sustainably! Instead of candles made of paraffin wax, you can keep it cozy by choosing beeswax or soy candles with essential oils and cotton wicks.
Pumpkin Time: Between pumpkin spice season, Halloween and Thanksgiving, you're in for a gourd time. You can enjoy your favorite beverage even more by taking your reusable tumbler to your local coffee shop. And after you're done carving up your spooky pumpkin or making pie, the seeds can become tasty treats.
Help Feathered Visitors: Your trees and gardens can be a wonderful refueling station for birds during their migration south. Fruiting shrubs and the leaves you've kept provide a snack and rest stop for them along their way to their winter home.
Longwave in the Wild
Ahoy!
Longwave sponsored Riverkeeper's first ever Whale-Watching Boat Trip and we were lucky enough to see dolphins and whales in New York Harbor. We are so grateful for their tireless work in defending the right to clean water for all species.
Non-Profit Spotlight: 1% for the Planet
Starting this year, Longwave has committed not just to a giving season but a giving lifestyle. We are proud and excited to have become members of 1% for the Planet. Created in 2002 by Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, and Craig Mathews, founder of Blue Ribbon Flies, 1% for the Planet has gained prominence for its dynamic mission of inspiring and supporting environmental nonprofits through membership and tireless activism.
We've committed to donating 1% of our revenue annually to vetted environmental causes that support our focus on sustainability, social justice and food insecurity. For us, becoming part of the 1% community is choosing to live our values. As Nathan put it so succinctly "Every day, we are inspired by our clients’ thoughtfulness and philanthropy - it’s only right that we match their values, not only with words, but also with deeds.”
Are there non-profits that you believe in passionately? We'd love to hear about them! Drop us a quick note with the organization's link and we'll take a look.
Know What You Own: AI & Sustainability
One of the big topics this year that has captured the imagination of the public and the momentum of financial markets is AI (artificial intelligence). While the words may sound like something from a movie about life on other planets, it’s simply technology that has the ability to change the way we work and live. Oftentimes, it’s spoken about in the same way as the internet was when it was first introduced on a wide scale.
The market this year has seen an AI boom. In fact, through the end of May 2023, just 5 companies made up 96% of all of the S&P 500’s gains, mostly attributed to speculation around the implementation of AI in businesses1. You may have read about ChatGPT (which Microsoft partly owns) in the news earlier this year, when people had fun with seeing how it would answer questions or create images. The market has also been driven by success of companies like Nvidia, which is creating the infrastructure. While the wild web rush of the 90’s changed the way we live, it also ended in the dotcom bust. It’s always good to remember that in the original Gold Rush, it was the shovel and supplies salesmen that made fortunes, regardless of whether miners ever found a nugget of gold. There is no doubt about the viability of AI but we are a long way from fully understanding its potential, the layers of ethics surrounding the technology and its usage along with how it will impact financial markets long term.
Another key question is whether AI is green and can advance sustainability objectives? Viewed through the prism of ESG, there are a few easily identified early indications that AI can be impactful:
1. While there are concerns about AI “taking over for humans,” it can accomplish two meaningful goals: enable people to do less menial work and eliminate the need for humans to engage in dangerous work, creating safer and more satisfying work conditions.
2. It can promote more efficient and responsive energy consumption.
3. In healthcare, it can improve outcomes, often missed by humans, through early diagnosis.
An urgent area of concern is the amount of energy it takes to train one AI model. A 2019 study put the amount at more than 5 times the lifetime carbon dioxide emissions of the average American car2. There are ways to measure the potential carbon footprints of AI models as well as the possibility of locating the biggest machine learning projects in more carbon-friendly areas of the world and running them on hydroelectricity. It would be an industry best practice, being led by the Google “4M” model, to always consider efficient architectures that optimize machine learning training and focus on cloud instead of physical locations.
As with all new ideas and technologies, we only see a sliver of the potential and consequences in the early stages. As long as AI continues to evolve in ways that touch our lives, taking green considerations into account at inception will make for a more viable future for all.
1 https://fortune.com/2023/05/30/nvidia-spx-index-stock-market-outlook/#
Investments are subject to risk, including the loss of principal. Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria are a set of non-financial principles and standards used to evaluate potential investments. The incorporation of ESG principles provides a qualitative assessment that can factor heavily into the security selection process. The investment’s socially responsible focus may limit the investment options available to the investor. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
