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☆ How one nonprofit is turning to AI to help boost women's financial literacy
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-29 | by ( Lorie Konish | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

One women-focused nonprofit has launched a new way to help them get faster answers to their queries through the use of an online AI chatbot. The organization, Savvy Ladies, was founded more than 20 years ago by Stacy Francis, a certified financial planner and president and CEO of Francis Financial in New York City. After seeing her grandmother stay in an abusive situation because she lacked financial resources, Francis created the nonprofit with the goal of helping other women avoid similar situations. watch nowThe new chatbot — provided through Microsoft Copilot — allows visitors to the Savvy Ladies website to type in their financial questions and receive immediate answers curated from the website's content written by CFPs and other financial professionals. Investors are more likely to trust advice from generative AI tools than from social media, according to a survey released last year from the CFP Board, a professional organization representing professional financial planners.

Persons: Stacy Francis, Francis, CFPs, Judy Herbst, Michael Roberts, William H, Lawrence, Roberts Organizations: Francis Financial, Microsoft, CNBC's FA, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, CFP Locations: New York City, CNBC's

☆ A juicy lawsuit offers a window into a Wall Street hiring raid after HSBC took 40+ bankers from the remnants of SVB
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Matt Turner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

HSBC hired more than 40 SVB bankers after the California bank was acquired out of receivership. First Citizens, which acquired SVB in the US, is now suing HSBC. The lawsuit offers a rare window into a Wall Street hiring raid. That's at the heart of a new lawsuit accusing HSBC of poaching more than 40 bankers from the failed California bank. Around March 21, per the lawsuit, Sabow met with several of the core leaders he had identified to discuss Project Colony.

☆ Bill Gates just invested in a startup that's trying to stop cows from burping and farting so much
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Bill Gates-founded Breakthrough Energy Ventures led a $12 million seed funding round into Rumin8. The Perth-based startup is developing a seaweed-based feed aiming to cut methane from livestock emissions — like the burps and farts of cows. As livestock accounts for about 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions, there are now global efforts to farm such animals more sustainably. "There are companies making 'beef' in new ways and people working to still use cows but reduce the methane emissions," Gates wrote in the thread. Last week, French food giant Danone pledged to slash methane emissions from its milk-supplying farms by about one-third by the end of this decade.

☆ Banks vs. Fintechs: Why all the billions in the world can't help Wall Street crush its digital rivals
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Bianca Chan | Reed Alexander | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

To compete, banks have written fat checks to acquire fintechs — tech, talent, and all. But on Wall Street, old habits die hard, and Goldman has struggled to make Marcus, a big fintech bet, a success. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Wall Street leaders have been at the helm of a push to get their employees back to their desks. It's more that the very things that make Wall Street, well, Wall Street are preventing it from embracing the ethos of Silicon Valley. And perhaps, for Wall Street, that's the moral of the story.

☆ The U.S. passed a historic climate deal this year — here's a recap of what's in the bill
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Emma Newburger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +11 min

The IRA's provisions have major implications for clean energy and manufacturing businesses, climate startups and consumers in the coming years. As 2022 comes to a close, here's a look back at the key elements in the legislation that climate and clean energy advocates will be monitoring in 2023. Taking aim at methane gas emissionsSome pumpjacks operate while others stand idle in the Belridge oil field near McKittrick, California. Mario Tama | Getty ImagesThe package imposes a tax on energy producers that exceed a certain level of methane gas emissions. And the bill has a hydrogen production tax credit, which provides hydrogen producers with a credit based on the climate attributes of their production methods.

☆ Climate report shows Australia will see more extreme weather events, putting strain on economy
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Michelle Toh | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Hong Kong CNN Business —Australia will continue to see a spike in extreme rainfall and heat, as well as more dangerous fire events, its government agencies warned Wednesday. In a biennial climate report, Australia’s national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), and the Bureau of Meteorology said it had already found “an increase in extreme heat events, intense heavy rainfall, longer fire seasons and sea level rise” recently. The changes are happening more rapidly and will put further pressure on Australia to transition its economy away from fossil fuels, the agencies warned. Australia has seen the devastating effects of the climate crisis up close recently, from marine heat waves that have caused mass coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef to extreme weather events including flooding. Over the past 50 years, “climate-induced extreme weather events including drought, fires, and floods have cost Australian communities an estimated 120 billion [Australian dollars] ($79.8 billion),” according to the Minderoo Foundation.

☆ Palm oil is in almost everything, and it's devastating rainforests. This Bill Gates-backed company used microbes to create an alternative
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +11 min

Palm oil grows best in the regions right around the equator, so palm oil producers chop down rainforest and clear that felled vegetation by burning it, making it a prime target of conservation organizations like the Rainforest Rescue and the World Wildlife Fund. Palm oil trees grow at the Cikasungka palm oil plantation, operated by PT Perkebunan Nusantara VIII, in Bogor Regency in West Java, Indonesia, on Monday, June 20, 2022. To make its palm oil alternative, C16 Biosciences uses a wild yeast microbe that makes a functional equivalent to palm oil with a kind of fermentation process. Photo courtesy: Cat Clifford, CNBCChemically, the palm oil that C16 Biosciences makes is not identical to the palm oil that is grown in industrial agriculture farms. However, "it contains the same fatty acids, which are the molecular fingerprints of fats and oils, that palm oil does," Heller told CNBC.

☆ Bill Gates' climate investment firm will put more money into adapting to climate change
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Eric Toone, one half of the investing committee at Breakthrough Energy, speaks to conference attendees at the breakthrough Energy Summit in Seattle on Wednesday October 19, 2022. Photo by Cat Clifford, CNBCSEATTLE — Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the climate technology investment firm started by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, will begin to invest more in companies that help people and businesses adapt to the consequences of climate change. "We're left with adaptation," Toone told the audience. But Breakthrough Energy Ventures is most certainly not a philanthropic organization. And in the past, the Gates Foundation has done a lot of work on adaptation," Toone told a group of reporters in a media briefing in Seattle.

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