What defines Mindy Lubber as an advocate, and what makes her such a fitting winner of the 2020 Champions of the Earth award for Entrepreneurial Vision, is her ability to change not only hearts and minds but also the way money flows around the world. 

Lubber is the head of Ceres, a non-profit organization that shows investors and multinational corporations how to factor sustainability risks like climate change, water pollution and deforestation into what they do and how they invest. Ceres is also working to improve regulatory and policy systems to ensure investors and companies are mandated to factor climate risk and water risk into their work.

In her 17 years at the organization, Lubber has been proving that it is possible to be profitable as well as environmentally and socially responsible.

“It’s not just policy and people. It’s also markets because whether we like it or not, they drive so much of the world,” she says. 

When Lubber talks about “markets”, she’s referring to capital markets, a broad term that includes the policies that govern our financial system as well as the trade in financial instruments, like stocks and bonds. 

Ceres, and other organizations like it, use hard data to convince investors and corporations that investments in technologies like solar power, wind energy and water recycling can be a boon for the bottom line. The goal is to spur investments that align with the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). (Climate Action 100+, an initiative Ceres helped co-found, has more than 500 investors with $47 trillion in assets under management.)

“To make real progress against climate change, the Paris Agreement and SDG agenda must be part of the imperative of business, not something to hold your nose at and fight against,” says Lubber.

A lifetime visionary
Long before she got involved in capital markets, Lubber was honing her advocacy skills alongside the consumer advocate Ralph Nader. She rose through the ranks of the Massachusetts chapter of the Public Interest Research Group to become its director. Gradually, her interest in consumer protection was surpassed by an even greater passion: a commitment to be a steward not only of the Earth but also of its inhabitants.

“Sustainability is the future of the planet and of its people,” she says. “You cannot have a just and sustainable future without humanity – the subjugation of women, or poverty, or food shortages... all of these are conditions that people cannot survive in.”

As the founder and CEO of the impact investment firm Green Century Capital Management in the early 1990s, Lubber remembers the skepticism and cynicism that greeted pitches for environmentally focused investments. 

Now, she says with a note of triumph, “it’s normal business. So, we have to go further. We have to change the way we do business, and we still have a long way to go.”

United Nations Environment Programme Executive Director Inger Andersen calls Lubber “a lifetime visionary...who sees the complex intersections between humanity and the world around them not as a challenge but as an opportunity. We are proud to celebrate Mindy Lubber as a 2020 Champion of the Earth, she demonstrates that with careful planning and collaboration, there needs not be a confrontation between environmental sustainability and economic growth.”

Sending the right signals
Lubber is proud of Ceres’ efforts to integrate sustainability into capital markets, and their success in demonstrating that acting on climate is good for the economy, not a burden.
 
In 2004, Ceres partnered with the United Nations Foundation to host a biennial investors summit on climate risk. Responses from companies were initially tepid: some sent interns. But today, the forum is a gathering place for CEOs, political leaders, major investors and development experts.

“It’s become a very special part of our history and partnership,” she says.
 
Lubber works directly with nearly 120 companies, and indirectly with hundreds more to develop and implement target-driven roadmaps for sustainability. She, and Ceres, also work with 198 investors including the largest pension funds in the US whose portfolios hold the biggest companies in our economy.

 “When the largest owners of the largest companies say we want to see you act, and change, it’s a very different response,” she says.

These investors, she says were critical to the success of the Paris Agreement, the landmark global commitment to combat climate change reached in 2015.
 
“Capital markets work if there are honest pricing signals,” she says. “Our job, when it comes to sustainability and the impacts of environmental degradation, is to find those signals.”

The United Nations Environment Programme’s Champions of the Earth and the Young Champions of the Earth honour individuals, groups and organizations whose actions have a transformative impact on the environment. 

The annual Champions of the Earth award is the UN’s highest environmental honour. It recognizes outstanding leaders from government, civil society and the private sector. Mindy Lubber is one of six laureates announced in December 2020, on the cusp of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030.

By showcasing news of the significant work being done on the environmental frontlines, the Champions of the Earth awards aim to inspire and motivate more people to act for nature. The awards are part of UNEP’s #ForNature campaign to rally momentum for the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) in Kunming in May 2021, and catalyze climate action all the way to the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow in November 2021.