StartingUpGood @StartingUpGood

Data center demand is usually framed as a climate and grid challenge. AI infrastructure does not have to compete with climate infrastructure if both are designed as one system. Ben Rubin of the Carbon Business Council highlights three design choices that matter in ESG Dive: * Data centers can reuse waste heat to support direct air capture systems instead of venting it. * Integrated energy parks can combine clean power generation, battery storage, and large power users on one site. * Flexible climate tech facilities can run when renewable generation exceeds grid demand. The AI buildout could help finance and accelerate climate tech if data centers, clean power, and industrial climate solutions are planned together. esgdive.com/news/how-data-…

Ibrahim Rashid of Sorenson Impact Foundation shares six lessons on effectively integrating AI into impact investing in @ImpactAlpha. - The foundation uses autonomous AI agents for grant scoring, enriching CRM data, sourcing deal flow, and supporting talent recruitment. - Practical tools include AI note-takers, no-code workflow builders, and language models like Anthropic’s Claude to analyze data across systems. - Key insights cover fostering continuous learning, starting with small AI wins, ensuring compliance, mitigating human error, owning AI transformation internally, and embracing discomfort. impactalpha.com/six-lessons-fr…

Ingka Group's new Social Enterprise Partnership Program integrates social enterprises into IKEA's core supply chain in Switzerland, demonstrating that inclusive employment delivers commercial value alongside impactful social outcomes. - This model pairs licensed supervisors with employees with disabilities to ensure quality service and inclusive employment. - The program has supported nearly 200 social enterprises across 35 countries to become corporate-ready since 2012. - BAND and VEBO, Swiss social enterprises, now manage IKEA's kitchen installation and repair services. This initiative challenges the notion that social impact and business performance are at odds by making inclusivity a core supply chain strategy. ow.ly/vYat50Z8cLL

Théo Cohan and Yun Fu of The Milken Institute highlight their collaborative approach to impact investing in this recent GreenMoney article. - The Women’s Health Network, formed through a 2024 Financial Innovations Lab, targets underfunded areas of women’s health with a catalytic philanthropic fund. - Partnerships such as with Cancer Research UK develop bridges to move early-stage oncology research toward investment-ready ventures. - Labs focused on community resilience and pandemic preparedness design market-based solutions addressing root causes beyond clinical care. These efforts demonstrate a new era where blended capital and cross-sector collaboration offer scalable pathways to healthier communities. greenmoney.com/capital-for-a-…

Corporate social impact is moving from reputation work to business infrastructure. ESG Dive reports that the new ACCP toolkit draws on 19 studies and surveys, including findings that 88% of business leaders say purpose-led strategies support long-term value creation. The useful shift is that the case is being made in both business and community terms. • ACCP’s research found companies aligning business practices with corporate metrics had 32% higher median revenue and 45% higher median pre-tax profit than those without those metrics. • Edelman found 59% of global customers see brands worth paying more for because of the good they do. • America’s Charities found more than 70% of employees say community impact influences employment decisions. Companies must explain community impact and direct business relevance clearly. esgdive.com/news/strong-co…

AI for Good needs capital to reach the people building solutions closest to the problem. Fast Company points to a stark mismatch. Investors put $300B into 6,000 startups in Q1 2026, while only a single digit share went to AI for social and environmental challenges. Hala Hanna of MIT Solve highlights 3 examples of proximity-driven innovation: • LifeBank uses AI enabled logistics to deliver blood, oxygen, and medical supplies to 3,000 hospitals in Nigeria in under 45 minutes. • FLAIR helps Indigenous communities use AI and immersive tools to keep endangered languages in living practice. • Amini reaches smallholder farmers across Africa with agricultural insights by SMS. The most useful AI may come from builders designing for the places most investors do not understand. fastcompany.com/91550235/ai-ca…

Data centers are becoming the front line of the AI sustainability debate. This Trellis Group article shows why the infrastructure behind AI is facing growing scrutiny from communities, companies and policymakers. • Energy demand is only part of the footprint • Water, land, noise and e-waste are rising concerns • Stronger disclosure, procurement and design standards can help reduce harm Companies must consider AI sustainability infrastructure decisions from day one: ow.ly/OkLO50Z7HI2

The next global development agenda is already taking shape. Forus’ new vision paper offers a civil society roadmap for what comes after the #SDGs. • Defend human rights, universality and justice • Demand credible financing and accountability • Decline lower ambition and shrinking civic space With 2027 negotiations on the horizon, the window to shape participation, power and delivery is now. sdg.iisd.org/news/global-ne… Forus is a global network of civil society organizations working to strengthen civic space, advance participatory democracy and support collective action for #SustainableDevelopment.

The OpenAI Foundation pledged an initial $250M in grants, partnerships, and hands-on programs towards 3 priorities: studying how AI is transforming labor markets, assisting workers and communities confronting imminent job losses, and identifying new mechanisms for spreading AI-generated wealth more equitably. Specific programs will be announced before the end of the year. Unlike a conventional grantmaking body, the foundation is assembling staff to manage certain initiatives in-house. OpenAI separately pledged in March to channel a minimum of $1 billion through the foundation over the following twelve months toward AI-related efforts spanning life sciences and local community initiatives. ow.ly/Iz5Y50Z6Shc

In the first of a 3-part series on venture investment to Black-founded startups, Crunchbase reports that only 0.32% of total U.S. venture funding went to startups with a Black founder or co-founder in 2026: ow.ly/Hffg50Z6RVt

Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta are teaming up with a nonprofit investor Elemental Impact to accelerate new technologies - including advanced cooling, energy storage and low-carbon building materials - using data centers as test cases. ow.ly/8met50Z6PAs

@WEF shows why mission-driven enterprises need patient capital, not venture timelines. 🔹 Treat impact and profit as partners, not rivals 🔹 Track liquidity as social infrastructure 🔹 Reward verified results through blended finance, impact-linked loans and impact credits ow.ly/4FKl50Z6PcT

MIT Technology Review examines what the numbers really say about AI's current impact on jobs: web.archive.org/web/2026052612…

New @PitchBook data shared with CNBC shows more than 220 former unicorns have slipped below a billion-dollar valuation as capital floods toward AI. 🔹 Startups that last raised in 2021 are worth 68% less on average, with the 2022 group down about 52% 🔹 Over $250 billion has flowed into @OpenAI and @Anthropic ahead of expected mega-IPOs "post-GPT startups are running laps around their older competitors" cnbc.com/2026/06/01/ai-…

This article from @devex discusses the landscape of international development jobs and how remote work fits into it all. A good perspective for our readers working in (or looking to get into) the space. devex.com/news/devex-car…

Check out this recap of May's Impact Investor Forum in London: impact-investor.com/impact-investo…

Unreasonable will hold its first-ever gathering 8 - 11 June in the Cotswolds outside of London. Learn more about the Unreasonable Alchemy 2026: unreasonablegroup.com/alchemy/apply

Jasper van Brakel of Regenerative Social Finance explains how ESG asked the right questions, but it did not go far enough: pwmnet.com/content/713a2f… #ImpactInvesting

Agentic AI has an ambition gap problem. 85% of organizations want to be agentic within three years, but 76% admit their current operations cannot support that shift, according to a new MIT Technology Review Insights analysis. The fix is not bolting AI agents onto a human operating model. It is redesigning the model around them. 🔧 The "sticky tape" trap. Layering AI employees onto legacy hierarchies is "like adding sticky tape to an operating model that is breaking," says Prasun Shah of PwC UK. 🧬 Agents as connective tissue. Value comes from coordinating across systems and surfacing higher-quality decisions, not from being one more tool in the stack. 📊 Outcomes over outputs. When one enterprise swapped activity metrics like cost per query for outcome metrics like contracts auto-cleared, measured ROI tripled in two quarters. 👥 Workforce reckoning. McKinsey & Company projects 75% of jobs will need redesign, upskilling, or redeployment by 2030. Leaders who keep treating agents as productivity add-ons will stall. Those who rewire workflows, decision rights, and success metrics will pull ahead. ow.ly/FfQF50Z4NRb

2 shocks are reshaping the global economy at once: energy disruption and AI acceleration. At the Milken Institute Global Conference session on the global economic outlook, business and finance leaders offered their constructive views of what comes next. The energy shock is exposing deep vulnerabilities in supply chains, inflation, and poorer oil-importing countries. At the same time, AI is moving from experimentation to real production, creating new risks but also new paths for productivity, financial inclusion, education, and healthcare. The strongest takeaway for leaders is that they cannot plan for one predictable future. They need flexible strategies, scenario thinking, and the courage to build through volatility. Moderator: Zanny Minton Beddoes - Editor-in-Chief, The Economist Speakers: Kristalina Georgieva - Managing Director, International Monetary Fund Mohamed Kande - Global Chairman, PwC Ariel Szarfsztejn - CEO, Mercado Libre Mike Wirth - Chairman of the Board and CEO, Chevron Corporation Watch the full conversation: ow.ly/F2NI50Z2SIA