Responsible Markets

Community Stewardship of Natural and Human Generated Assets

Ahupua’a Investment Summit

From January 31 to February 1, 2020, Responsible Markets brought together the local Maui and Hawaii community with leaders of impact investing from around the world, along with academics, union leaders, lawmakers, pension beneficiaries, institutional asset owners, and other stakeholders at the Ahupua’a Investment Summit.

Food Security Data Visualization Project

Responsible Markets is currently working on a cropland mapping and food security project in collaboration with NASA Harvest, University of Hawaii Maui College, and Maui United Way. The project will use machine learning, satellite data, and field data to map where crops are growing and to assess crop conditions across Maui County. With community guidance, crop maps will be integrated into a food security dashboard.

This project lines up with RM's goals of developing opportunities for community stewardship of critical assets and resources, bringing new sources of funding and expertise to Maui County, and facilitating partnerships between public and private entities on initiatives addressing community needs. Of particular interest to us has been connecting the scientists at NASA Harvest with farmers, high school students and adult computer science students, focusing on workforce development and job creation in ways that integrate technology with community priorities and values. Another priority is developing tools, policies, and best practices for data sovereignty. More info here.

Clean Energy

Electric Vehicles in Rental Car Fleets

Engaged with auto makers and labor unions to develop a strategy for scaling adaptation of electric vehicles in rental car fleets in a manner that supports grid balancing and renewable energy integration.

Engaged with leaders of Pacific coast states and British Columbia regarding Hawaii’s potential role as a center of clean energy incubation, prototyping, and pilot deployment.

Pacific Coast States Collaboration

Hawaii Clean Energy Innovation and Strategic Plan

Responsible Markets provided expertise to the State of Hawaii’s Office of the Consumer Advocate on how Hawaii’s economy can benefit from new models of corporate governance that incorporate local values and measurable community benefits with a robust framework for catalyzing the groundbreaking inventions necessary to meet the state’s 100% renewable energy targets.

Responsible Markets was the Hawaii lead in the development of the Hawaii Clean Energy Innovation Strategic Plan.

Renewable Energy & Community Values

Invention, Innovation and the Future of Work

Retained by a national labor federation to develop partnerships with inventors and to champion innovation as a key source of competitive advantage and a foundation for job creation/retention.

Retained by prominent inventors to build alliances with those who will advocate for inventors.

Co-organized a global summit of engineers unions to reinvent the role of unions in a new world of work where power accrues to platforms, collective data augments ‘intelligence’ and incentives to invent are diminishing.

Investment in Hawaii

Benefit Corporation Governance for Acquisition

Hawaii Capital Stewardship Advisory Committee

Served as key impact investment advisor for private equity firm pursuing acquisition of utility and bank through a benefit corporation holding company.

Double Bottom Line at State Capitol

Developed the ingenuity strategy in consultation with national leaders in labor, investment, invention, economic development, manufacturing, engineering and law. The strategy is designed to proactively address a number of the fundamental causes of economic inequality ­— capital mobility, global labor arbitrage and the broken link between increased productivity and equitable compensation by leveraging the right to exclude in patents and other types of intellectual property for the purpose creating good jobs, upholding fair labor standards and protecting the natural environment while increasing the overall value of the underlying intellectual assets. Ingenuity Underwriters is working to champion invention and innovation as a new asset class for investors, a key source of competitive advantage for local communities, a dynamic tool for labor unions in the 21st century and a catalyst for the creation of quality jobs with increased equity.

Organized a national summit held at Hawaii’s state capitol on “double-bottom line” investing. Participants included key Hawaii and mainland representatives from pension funds, foundations, trusts, state government, venture capital and intellectual property.

Recruited the Hawaii Capital Stewardship Advisory Committee in collaboration with Hawaii's Lieutenant Governor to provide a forum for those involved in capital strategies initiatives to consult with national experts from unions, pension funds and labor-friendly financial firms.

Maui ESG Project

In 2019, Responsible Markets initiated the Maui ESG Project, with a goal of supporting the successful deployment of capital for community needs by using an ESG (environmental, social, good governance) and Ahupua’a impact investment framework in the development of new business models.

The intention was not just to discuss impact and sustainable investing, but to work together on practical, comprehensive approaches for capital to flow into Maui in a sustainable and innovative manner that supports the needs of the community. There was no charge for the Summit in order to ensure that community concerns were represented and that participants attended for the purpose of doing the work needed to create positive impacts. More than half of attendees were from Maui or other parts of Hawaii.

Alliances Between Unions and Inventors

Global Engineers Summit

Incubated Ingenuity Underwriters

Satellite Data to Support Maui Fire Response

Satellite and other geospatial data also allow us to better understand the evolution and impact of the wildfires on Maui (and in the future, how to anticipate or prevent them). Because it can be difficult to sort through the abundance of information online about the fires including satellite data, Responsible Markets' NASA Harvest partners have organized sources of satellite data related to the fires and shared resources for accessing this satellite data and derived products here.

21st Century Labor Union Strategies

Facilitated meetings between nationally prominent inventors and labor leaders.

Worked with the United Auto Workers during the auto crisis on strategies for using automaker patents to anchor good jobs in the United States.

Assisted in creation of 'value for value exchange' model for use within bankruptcy proceedings to promote asset maximization and the job creation potential of intellectual property.

Worked with a labor/environmental coalition to introduce new technologies into port operations in a manner that would reduce pollution and increase wages for drayage truck drivers.

We Are Responsible Markets

Ian Chan Hodges

Founder/Principal

Shay Chan Hodges, Read/Write Community, LLC

Stakeholder Engagement Consultant