I’ve just returned from a family reunion in the US. Conscious of the carbon footprint of the journey, I’ll attempt to partially offset emissions by extracting some UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)-linked considerations from the trip.

We were in California and Oregon, where cities are vibrant and the coastline marvellous. UN SDG 15, Life on Land struck me first however, aptly illustrated with a tree symbol. The arboreal diversity of this area is incredible – a panorama of different shapes and hues of palms, cedars, cypress, redwoods, spruce and cottonwood. Walls of trees displaying the beauty of biodiversity, as well as its carbon absorption and storage benefits. With one of the highest rates of per person emissions in the world, the US also has a richness of features that offer emission reducing solutions. Soaking up nature brought home the importance and the potential investor appeal of investment funds that avoid harm to the natural environment.

With the worsening Californian wildfires in recent years, I was surprised that UN SDG 13, Climate Action, was not a conversation topic. The physical risks are very present – the Californian family had come close to a house evacuation in 2020 and the New Englanders had struggled to breathe due to the Canadian wildfire smoke that turned New York skies orange this year. 

However, in a country where long car journeys and frequent domestic plane keeps families together, the Inflation Reduction Act really needs to get to work on delivering new energy and transport options.

The environmental issue that was centre table was SDG 6, Clean Water and Sanitation. Access to a clean and adequate water supply was a subject of discussion relating to which state to live in and which property to buy. Some of the homes we visited had state of the art technology but were piped up to a creaking plumbing and sewage system. No surprise that water-themed investment funds have high exposure to the US market. It’s a theme based on investing in basic needs, rather than the latest wants.

Moving on to social goals, several UN SDGs raised their heads. Goal 4, Quality Education; Goal 10, Reduced Inequalities; and Goal 16, Peace, Justice and Strong institutions. Several of the US parents homeschool their children, believing this the best way for them to safely fulfil their potential. Investment in businesses that support access to on-line learning will resonate. This was an investment theme that thrived during the pandemic but in the States there are more than viruses that parents wish to shelter their children from.

A couple of days in San Francisco were eye-opening. Initially, the city shook me, and not due to seismic activity. Never have I seen such a stark and wide gap between the richest and poorest. In the centre of the city, two blocks away from ranks of designer stores, hotels and restaurants, there is homelessness, publicly drugtaking, searching through bins and getting on with life on the streets. Poverty and homelessness are a terrible thing for those enduring it. Investing in businesses and projects that seek to provide fair pay, equal opportunity and help people improve their lives is a small step towards closing the gap. If we don’t address the cracks in society, they will widen. Global impact bond funds offer potential to direct funds to projects aligned with such aims.

We also visited Alcatraz while in the city, a trip in history that taught much about the present. An exhibition about the US incarceration system revealed that more than two million are currently behind bars, the highest percentage of the population in the world. The visitor survey indicated the majority thought this was wrong and favoured reform of the system. 

Education, law, housing, government, media and finance were all systems that came under question around the dinner table, with one relative saying they wanted to buy gold bars so as not to engage with financial markets, fees and paperwork! I explained how investing in a certain manner can allow you to align value with values and express your individuality, just as you do in what you wear, what you talk about and what you eat.

As three generations of a family came together round a table in America, it was inevitable that uniting our money with our values would be raised as a means of addressing the state of the world. 

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Organizers seeking to recall three members of the San Francisco School Council have been cleared to collect signatures in the hope of making the subject available to voters in a special election.

The couple, Autumn Looijen and Siva Raj, are expected to launch the signature drive today to recall Education Committee President Gabriela Lopez and Members Faauuga Moliga and Alison Collins after receiving approval from the Electoral Department earlier this week.

While Looijen and Raj are keen to overturn the entire school board for their inability to reopen schools quickly during the pandemic, four board members won’t be eligible for a recall until July as they took office earlier this year.

“Nobody has a successful recall campaign and we want to be the first to do so,” said Looijen. “We have serious concerns as to whether those in power will be able to control the ship.”

Looijen and Raj are technicians who moved to The City last December and enrolled two children in the San Francisco Unified School District. The couple say the board has been distracted by trying to rename 44 schools with problematic names instead of focusing on reopening.

In February, the school board suspended the renaming process to focus on reopening schools.

“We have been fully focused on returning to face-to-face learning and supporting distance learning for students who choose to continue,” Lopez said in response to the campaign. “During this time, too, my attention will be focused on these efforts and the support of our school district.”

The campaign is expected to hand out individual petitions for Lopez, Moliga and Collins and has until September 7th to submit signatures. The question would appear on the ballot when at least 51,325 signatures, representing 10% of the city’s registered voters, are validated.

Collins has been at the center of controversy in recent weeks after supporters of the recall resurfaced her 2016 tweets criticizing Asian Americans for “using white supremacist thinking to get ahead.” The controversy divided The City as most of the power structure urged Collins to resign.

Jim Stearns, a political advisor, said Collins would likely become the “flagship” for the recall but doubted the campaign could garner enough signatures to qualify for an election.

“You’re not going to qualify this with a base effort,” Stearns said. “You will only qualify if you have the pro-charter billionaire money that was active in the previous cycle. Once they take that money, they’ll simply disqualify themselves from the San Francisco electorate. ”

Collins did not return a request for comment in time for publication.

Supporters of the callback said they debated not pushing efforts against Moliga after he helped Collins remove her title as Vice President and Committee last week, but decided that his vote results warranted continuation of the effort.

Like Lopez and Collins, Moliga helped rename and change the admissions process for Lowell High School.

Moliga defended his record, which included writing laws to increase teacher retention through the construction of teacher housing.

“The recall shows that there is a group of parents who are frustrated by the school board,” said Moliga. “I am the first Pacific Islander ever elected to office in San Francisco and this is my first time giving my marginalized community a voice in local government.”

Should voters remember members, Mayor London Breed would appoint their successors.

imojadad@sfexaminer.com

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