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Green bonds are bond issues, used to finance new or existing projects, whose proceeds are exclusively applied to financing projects or businesses that will promote progress on environmentally sustainable activities. The green bond market has increased exponentially in the last decade, from approximately $7 billion in 2010 to over $250 billion in 2019, with growth fueled by the increasing environmental awareness of corporate stakeholders (e.g., investors, customers). This note includes a working definition of the green bond market, its financial scope, and examples of successful implementation. The note also addresses the challenges to further growth and acceptance-including a lack of consistent global standards on green project definitions as well as reporting and disclosure around the environmental impact of green bonds.

Shift Capital was a social impact real estate firm seeking to positively change underserved urban neighborhoods while producing attractive returns for investors. In January 2018 the organization had raised $25 million to date to support the transformation of the economically and socially challenged Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia; however, another $25 million had to be found as quickly as possible in order to move forward with development plans. In this case students are asked to consider the investor concerns that must be overcome in order to attract enough capital to close the fund: Were investors worried about the risk of investing in such a downtrodden neighborhood? Or was it the perception that Shift's target returns were too low or would take too long?

E+Co, an award-winning impact investment focused on the introduction of clean-energy technologies in developing countries, made 287 investments totaling over USD45 million since its 1994 inception. However, in 2011 new board members Dan Abbasi, Russell Diamond, and Bruce Usher had concerns about the financial health of E+Co's operations. In this case, students will be asked to review qualitative and quantitative material from the organization's business plan in order to determine whether its business model was fundamentally flawed.

Spreadsheet supplement for case CU285.

Community Energy Inc. was founded in 1999 with the goal of developing the United States' renewable energy supply. In 2003 Eric Blank, cofounder and executive vice president of CEI, considers a proposal for an Atlantic County wind farm. Though the proposal clearly fit within the firm's strategy of identifying and developing renewable energy projects that could generate attractive financial returns, coastal wind farms were nonexistent in the United States in 2003.