From Toxic Sites to Resilience Scores: New Metrics for Smarter Investing with Paul Herman

In this episode of The Future of Finance, Georges Dyer sits down with Paul Herman, founder of HIP Investor (Human Impact + Profit). Paul shares how HIP uses a tech-enabled platform to turn vast amounts of real-world data—from companies, governments, nonprofits, and even satellites—into impact ratings on hundreds of thousands of securities. These ratings help investors understand both risks and opportunities in areas like climate resilience, toxic site exposure, health outcomes, and corporate sustainability.

Paul also dives into innovative ways HIP is helping cities and municipalities finance their climate action plans, highlighting underutilized tools such as private credit, public-private partnerships, and community foundations. He explains how resilience analysis goes beyond traditional risk ratings, accounting for factors like extreme weather, waste management, and community strength.

With decades of leadership in sustainable investing, authorship of The HIP Investor and The Global Handbook of Impact Investing, and a passion for education, Paul demonstrates how impact investing not only drives positive societal change but also delivers competitive financial returns.

Paul’s books and resources:

• The HIP Investor: https://hipinvestor.com/the-hip-investor-book/
• The Global Handbook of Impact Investing: https://hipinvestor.com/global-handbook/

Keywords: Impact investing, climate resilience, sustainable finance, municipal climate action, ESG data, toxic site multipliers, private credit, resilient communities, HIP Investor, Human Impact and Profit