Bridget Croke of Closed Loop Partners challenged SI-MBA students to explore the intersection of private equity and sustainability, emphasizing the "long game" of impact investing; Showing how profit and positive environmental impact can align.
Bridget Croke

Bridget Croke Introduces Impact Investing and What it Means to Play the Long Game in a Sustainable Landscape
 

As part of the Innovator in Residence series, The University of Vermont’s (UVM) Sustainable Innovation MBA (SI-MBA) program had the pleasure of welcoming Bridget Croke to campus this past November. Bridget is the Managing Director and Co-Founder of Closed Loop Partners, an investment firm that specializes in impact and innovation investing. The students had the opportunity to hear from Bridget as she shared her experiences in impact investing and private equity. Throughout the afternoon, she encouraged the students to engage in open conversation and later led them through a hands-on exercise.

 

Can Private Equity Do Good In The World?
 

During her visit, Bridget posed the question on whether private equity can do good in the world. Her current firm that she works for, Closed Loop Partners, is a private equity company that invests in businesses that they feel can make a positive impact and build out the idea of a circular economy. Historically, most companies making an impact are Initial Public Offerings (IPOs), and private equity has a longstanding reputation of growth without accountability. 

However, Bridget and the team at Closed Loop Partners are working to rewrite the script for private equity and impact investing. As part of a team exercise, Bridget split the SI-MBA students into teams. She assigned each team a specific industry and instructed everyone to think about how to implement circularity while adding value to that industry. She explained that in order for companies to invest in ideas and businesses, there needs to be a certain amount of added value to make it worth it for the investors.

Students split up into groups, and Bridget walked around to hear students brainstorm their ideas. She challenged students to dive deep into their ideas and to think like a Venture Capitalist (VC), while also encouraging them to be creative. The students were told to propose concepts or business ventures that built on the concept of circularity, while still being profitable and attractive to investors. Bridget told the students that you “have to play the long game” in impact investing. For investors, the end goal is always profitability, but for us the end goal is a profit with a positive impact on our planet. Bridget encouraged the students to continue pushing for change and finding the value in projects, industries and business that will make a positive impact on our environment.

Bridget Croke
About Bridget Croke
 

Bridget started her sustainability journey focused on agriculture. At the University of Wisconsin Madison, she majored in Sustainable Development with an interest in Agriculture and Food Systems. After graduation, she worked with Fair Food, a Philadelphia non-profit, helping the founder use her restaurant to promote practices for a sustainable food economy. After launching many programs and creating a national “buy local” food guide at Fair Food, she joined the consulting firm RecycleBank where she met Ron Gonen, her current partner.

After many years of building a track record at RecycleBank by successfully creating brand partnerships and leading most of their fundraising, her partner Ron proposed a business venture which eventually became Closed Loop Partners. Bridget and Ron joined forces to create a company that would invest in the circular economy. Initially focusing on recycling, they got investors to back the first fund that would raise 100 million to finance the development of recycling infrastructure and other circular economy projects. Bridget now manages external industry and investor partnerships and special projects at Closed Loop Partners. In her free time, she enjoys traveling and climbing.