Former Vice-President Al Gore’ Generation Investment Management LLP has held sustainability close to its investment thesis for years. After all, one of its core philosophies is that businesses that are sustainable make for ones that can achieve long-term success. Yesterday, it took one step further as it announced a new $1 billion sustainable solutions fund dedicated to supporting ventures that are not just financially sustainable, but rather environmentally sustainable too.

The new fund, dubbed Generation IM Sustainable Solutions Fund III, intends to invest “$50-150 million in innovative companies with high-growth potential,” according to its latest press release. But more specifically, Fund III will focus on three particular investment areas.

Investment Areas

Planetary Health

Planetary health is the idea that businesses can look to come up with solutions to large-scale problems while limiting carbon emissions. Particularly, enterprises looking to solve problems in transportation and energy need to be increasingly cognizant of planetary health. Companies in the automotive industry and others are continuing to innovate and move the needle towards cleaner energy. Fund III seems to look to support those companies and compound their impact.

People Health

Sustainability and people health go hand and hand, and Fund III makes that idea one of its key investment focuses. It’s been clear that climate change does impact people health. Particularly, rising temperatures and air pollution are two clear implications that climate change has on people and their wellbeing. That being said, Generation looks to fund ventures working on revolutionizing healthcare, making it more accessible to the common person.

Financial Inclusion

Fund III’s idea is that while businesses are sustainable, they should also be financially inclusive. According to Generation, it’s also looking to support businesses that are looking to form a more “equitable future of work”. Inevitably, the sustainability space is likely to generate a lot of jobs going forward. Generation is looking to make sure those jobs provide amiable working environments for employees.

Announced Investments

According to Generation’s press release, its Fund III has already invested in two companies: SOPHiA Genetics, a software company applying computing to data-driven medicine, and Andela, and a platform that helps build distributed software engineering teams in Africa.

Conclusions

As sustainability becomes a more important talking point, funds like Generation will become increasingly critical to the success of companies in the sustainability space. Going forward, the EV space won’t be just comprised of Tesla, Nissan, and the other large players. And those smaller ventures could definitely use some financial support to grow.