Eddyfication

Did you know that Al Gore has an investment management business?  It’s called Generation Investment Management and is a roughly 30-person firm based in London.  Generation’s investment philosophy (not surprisingly) is centered on the idea of socially-responsible investing, with an eye towards companies promoting green initiatives designed to combat the man-made effects on global warming.  I learned about the firm upon reading about the 150 million pound mandate that it won from the Church of England.

I’m not trying to go all conspiratorial on everyone here, but the existence of an investment management business under the Gore umbrella makes me scratch my head in wonder just a tiny little bit.  I mean, I appreciate his cause célèbre – global warming seems to me as real as the day is long – and Gore has played in instrumental role in pushing the issue to the forefront of the global consciousness.  Kudos to him for that.  But having an asset management business built on the back of his message seems to stretch the lines of do-goodery.  On the one hand, I appreciate what his $10 billion or so can do for the world of green startups from a capital-sourcing standpoint.  But on the other hand, supposing his firm charges a standard 1% management fee on those assets, Generation is clipping $100 million or so a year in fees.  That’s not a bad business, particularly so for its chairman, whom I’d imagine has a generous slice of the partnership.

I’m not suggesting that there is anything untowards going on here.  Rather, I’m just beginning to question Gore’s motives in all of this climate change business.  After all, that’s exactly what it has become – a business.