5 Minutes With… Tanja Havemann from Clarmondial

by Liz Gyekye (BioMarket Insights) We are working on the launch of an innovative investment fund to finance sustainable agricultural supply chains. Sustainable investing is not just a trend, its becoming part of the fabric of investing. Once a marginal concern, it has become an important element of many successful investment strategies. Switzerland-based investment advisory company Clarmondial is one firm that is helping businesses to do this. Clarmondial specifically focuses on sustainable natural resource investments in emerging markets.

Here, Liz Gyekye, senior content manager for Bio-Based World News, catches up with co-founder and director Tanja Havemann (TH).

Clarmondial was created to help mobilise capital to businesses and projects that contribute to sustainable natural resource management. I co-founded the company with Fred Werneck, whom I met while working on the investments team at Climate Change Capital, which at the time was one of the largest green asset managers, and later acquired by Bunge Financial Services. We saw that there was a need for specialised investment advisory services focused on impactful businesses, projects and investors. The company has been growing organically since 2010 and today our clients ranging from family offices, leading corporates, NGOs, research organisations and governments. We enjoy working on demanding projects, particularly structuring and developing new financing structures.

I spent the first 18 years of my life in Kenya and Tanzania, where my parents worked as medical doctors and in development assistance. This motivated me to develop business solutions that contribute to development and sustainable economic growth, allowing natural capital base to be maintained, and people to lead satisfying lives. I originally studied tropical environmental science, but as I got increasingly interested in how nature relates to business and investments, I pursued additional degrees in applied environmental economics and environmental law and policy. I subsequently worked in environmental finance roles, both in advisory and direct investments.

We are working on the launch of an innovative investment fund to finance sustainable agricultural supply chains. Materials for a bio-based and circular economy will also benefit from this financing instrument. We are also exploring some exciting initiatives related financing to sustainable supply chain and circular economy initiatives with leading consumer-facing companies, including new funding mechanisms to attract additional capital. And, we are working with a range of investors and foundations to develop new environmental financing instruments in both developed and emerging economies. READ MORE