ESG Quick Takes 10 - Making an impact through climate VC investing

Peter Fox-Penner is a partner and Chief Impact Officer at Climate VC firm Energy Impact Partners (EIP), where he directs all ESG and impact measurement, helps EIP’s portfolio companies to improve their ESG performance, and collaborates with EIP’s limited partners to accelerate their clean energy transitions. He is also a founding member of Project Frame, a coalition of leading PE firms developing impact reporting guidelines, and co-founder and senior fellow of the Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability. He is also a Senior Advisor to the Brattle Group.

He previously served as a Senior Advisor in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy.

He has served on the boards and advisory boards of numerous companies, including EOS Energy Storage (EOSE), Gridpoint, the Global Energy Group (GHG), and Lighting Retrofit, Inc (now Envocore).

Peter now serves on the global leadership council of the World Resources Institute and on the advisory boards of Mobility Impact Partners, the Rail Electrification Council, and the Boston University IMAP program, a collaboration between industry and academia to improve ESG metrics

To learn more from Peter's views, his book Smart Power: Climate Change, the Smart Grid, and the Future of Electric Utilities (Island Press, 2010) and its sequel Power After Carbon: Building a Clean, Resilient Grid (Harvard University Press, 2020) give a detailed and fascinating insight on the energy system in its complexity. His research has been widely cited, including in one Supreme Court decision.

Peter's firm, EIP is a lead investor of ESG Book.