Blue Dot Brief, Issue 1
A concise email update for busy impact investors who want to enable regenerative living on Earth. From the Blue Dot Project.
Word count: 1,100. Reading time: 4 min.
ABOUT THE BLUE DOT BRIEF
This is the first issue of the Blue Dot Brief, brought to you by the Blue Dot Project.
Twice monthly, the Blue Dot Brief covers topics related to investing in regenerative culture and community.
Look for concise news, resources, and brief mentions of hand-curated resources you may have missed.
The format is designed for easy skimming and scanning. It borrows elements from the Smart Brevity format of Axios newsletters.
Each issue should require no more than five minutes of reading time for native speakers of English.
IN THIS ISSUE
Risk-hedging strategies for impact investors, by Eduardo Esparza
Name and format change for the former Climate Levers podcast: Meet the mostly new Blue Dot Project Podcast.
ReCommon, a partner of the Blue Dot Project, introduces a new digital mapping service for funders, developers, planners, and builders or regenerative projects.
New ways to for impact investors to hedge against global risk and uncertainty
By Eduardo Esparza
Investors today face unprecedented uncertainty on a global scale.
Among those uncertainties are the cascading effects of air and water pollution, food insecurity, growing scarcity of freshwater, loss of biodiversity, climate change, energy transition, mass migration, political strife, economic instability, and war. Some writers refer to this brew of threats as a looming polycrisis.
Investors can’t just put their money under a mattress until the polycrisis blows over.
The causes of the crises are complex and interrelated. Effects and consequences are hard to predict. With so many changes coming so fast, it’s hard to find initiatives that investors can embrace with full confidence.
Why it matters
Impact investors receive countless proposals that claim to address various aspects of the polyscrisis.
Investors say it’s challenging to find and vet solid opportunities that meet most of their selection criteria.
Only a few proposed solutions offer solid risk-adjusted returns, hedges against risk, and practical ways to address the root causes of the polycrisis.
Dig deeper
In the first of a series of articles, I share my ideas on ways impact investors can achieve their financial goals, while also hedging against risk and helping to eliminate root causes of the polycrisis.
You can read my first article in the series here.
Climate Levers becomes the Blue Dot Project Podcast
The Climate Levers podcast has changed its name, focus, and format.
Why it matters
Impact investors are busy. They need more efficient ways to find and consume information about how to achieve their financial goals while also helping our planet to thrive.
The goal of the newly reformulated Blue Dot Project Podcast is to help impact investors find and digest the information they need to make well-informed decisions.
What’s changed
The new podcast goes in a new direction than its predecessor, Climate Levers.
The Blue Dot Project Podcast now addresses climate change, pollution of air and water, loss of biodiversity and habitat, loss of soil health, food insecurity, and more.
It focuses on practical investments that enable regenerative living, culture, and community.
Our primary audience consists of impact investors in North America, Europe, and Latin America. We hope also to help anyone who plans, develops, builds, or operates regenerative cultures and communities.
What to expect
The new Blue Dot Project Podcast format is focused and concise.
Episodes are now about 15 to 20 minutes long, with each addressing a single topic. The podcast host weaves together segments of interviews with one or more guests.
The host also provides context and explains terms that may be unfamiliar to non-native speakers of English. Each episode lists the key points and takeaways at the end.
You can find all published episodes of both the Blue Dot Project Podcast and Climate Levers here.
Published episodes of the new Blue Dot Project Podcast
Here’s a quick list of published episodes in the new format:
Season 2, Episode 1. Eduardo Esparza, founder and CEO of the Blue Dot Project, talks about the path that led him to downscale his prior business to start financing regenerative projects.
Season 2, Episode 2. Alex Corren, cofounder and executive director of ReCommon, talks about the design principles for building successful regenerative communities.
Season 2, Episode 3. In Part 2 of a two-part series, Alex Corren talks about the need for regenerative communities.
Season 2, Episode 4. Neal Collins, cofounder of Latitude Regenerative Real Estate Development and host of The Regenerative Real Estate Podcast, talks about the emerging field of regenerative real estate. In Part 1 of a two-part series, Neal talks about the differences in mindset and processes between conventional and regenerative real estate development.
Future episode
Season 2, Episode 5. In June’s Part 2 with Neal Collins, he talks about two regenerative real estate projects his company is developing in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States.
FRIENDS AND PARTNERS
New digital mapping service helps organizations plan and report impacts of regenerative projects
A picture is worth a thousand words. And a good digital map can be worth millions of dollars.
Organizations that fund, develop, plan, or build regenerative projects can now produce high-value digital maps in less time, with less effort, and at lower cost than in the recent past.
Why it matters
Organizations that finance, plan, or manage regenerative projects all need accurate, detailed digital maps to make solid decisions informed by data. They also need maps to show stakeholders the impact of their projects.
What it does
ReCommon has just introduced a new digital mapping service to help meet these needs.
ReCommon’s interactive digital maps can show topological features overlaid with many kinds of custom data. The custom data may include political boundaries, ethnic groups, nature reserves, local languages, habitat of flora and fauna, population densities, urban areas, watersheds, geological features, land use, modifications made by humans, and more.
Such maps can show a project within its geographic context. They can also show before-and-after comparisons. A well-made map tells a compelling story.
The ReCommon Maps service weaves together geolocation data with specialized local datasets.
How it’s different
In the absence of ReCommon’s help, organizations may have to learn to use commercial mapping tools, which often have a steep learning curve. Organizations may also face tedious, complicated tasks to find and reformat data files.
The service is specialized for use by land trusts, impact investors, grassroots organizers, NGOs, bioregionalists, regenerative farmers, and community developers.
Dig deeper
To explore the capabilities of ReCommon’s new mapping service, visit Recommon Maps here.
WRAP UP
That’s it for this issue.
If you’ve enjoyed it, please share with your friends and colleagues. Also consider subscribing so you don’t miss anything in future issues.
If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, I invite you to share them in the Blue Dot Brief chat at Substack. Or email me at editor@bluedotproject.com
See you in two weeks.
Best wishes,
David Vranicar
Editor