Sustainable Alpha: Dave Chen on global impacts

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Dave Chen, Equilibrium Capital Group

Sustainable Alpha features shared conversations with the best minds, portfolio managers and industry leaders working to maximize returns while prioritizing the environment, social and governance factors — what’s become short-handed in the industry as ESG. Sustainable Alpha highlights portfolio approaches and investment trends against the backdrop of broader themes such as resource constraints, policy changes and demographic shifts — all while shedding light on how ESG can impact your investments.

Sustainable Alpha conversations are led by John Wrenn, Senior VP, Investments for UBS. The Wrenn Ferguson Group has a combined experience of 200 years managing over 1.6 billion in assets, offering customized wealth management strategies for individuals, endowments and foundations. View the rest of his conversations with leaders in the sustainable investment community.

Here he's talking with Dave Chen, principal and founder of impact investing firm Equilibrium Capital Group. He is also a board member of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco’s Portland Branch and chairman of the Oregon Innovation Council.

John Wrenn: How would you describe the impacts of a growing middle class in emerging economies and its implications for the global economy?

Dave Chen: I jokingly say that the issues and opportunities in sustainability can be summed up in one simple trend: One Chinese or Indian consumer starting to eat chicken and drive a car.

That move from a grain-based diet to a meat-based diet means that the grain that previous fed eight people now gets fed to livestock that feeds one person. A pound of chicken means three pounds of grain. This "productivity" swap takes place on a relatively fixed number of global productive acres.