During Climate Week in New York, a special event highlighted women's leadership in environmental impact investing and introduced COPx, an alternative to the UN's annual climate summit. The gathering also launched Newday Impact's Causeway app to connect finance with frontline change. Featuring panels with global leaders, the event emphasized radical transparency and accountable capital amid pressures on nonprofits.
The event, recorded live in New York during the UN General Assembly and Climate Week, gathered powerful women leaders in environmental and social impact investing. It introduced COPx, the People's COP, as an alternative to the increasingly oil industry-dominated UN event, and launched Newday Impact Investing’s Causeway app, designed for radical transparency, shared leadership, and accountable capital to bridge finance and frontline efforts.
Doug Heske, CEO of Newday Financial Technologies, and Hunter Lovins, Co-CEO of COPx Global, opened the evening with a dialogue on converging financial systems, climate leadership, and grassroots movements. The panels addressed confronting systemic barriers, sharing real-world success stories, and building momentum for participatory impact investing.
Panel 1, 'Bridging the Gap: From Intention to Climate Impact,' moderated by Hunter Lovins, featured climate leaders empowering local communities. Panelists included Georgie Badiel Liberty, CEO of the Georgie Badiel Foundation; Drea Burbank of Savimbo; Mia DeMezza of EarthEcho International; Tonia Lovejoy, Executive Director of Friends of the Virgin Island’s National Park & Blue Community Consortium; and Stephanie Santell, North American Director of Okhtapus.
Panel 2, 'Frontline Heroines: Leading the Charge for Global Change,' moderated by Betsy Moszeter, CEO and President of Newday Impact Investing, spotlighted nonprofit and for-profit leaders. Participants were Anna Rathmann of the Jane Goodall Institute; Nok Nora Duany Bassey, Business Executive at Accenture; Laura Ash of the Beneficial Plant Research Association; Maria Sjödin of Outright International; and Liza Munson of Vow for Girls.
Other participating organizations included the Wildlife Conservation Network, Ewaso Lions, Trust for Public Land, Climate Voice, Intentional Futures, Fred Hollows Foundation, Mad Agriculture, Norwegian Refugee Council, Root Catalysts, Coffee Watch, Guam Green Growth, and Friends of Virgin Islands National Park. The event underscored the pressures on nonprofit leaders—shrinking funding, skepticism, and political scrutiny—while showcasing tools like Causeway for positive change.