Fixing Finance: Inside Triodos' €6B Pure-Play, Impact-Only Asset Manager | Hadewych Kuiper (#083)

SRI360 | Sustainable & Responsible Investing, Impact Investing, ESG, Socially Responsible Investing

My guest today is Hadewych Kuiper, Managing Director at Triodos Investment Management — a pure-play impact investing firm since day one, with a 30-year track record of turning capital into systemic change.

However, Hadewych didn’t arrive in finance with a grand plan to change the system. Her journey began in a small town in the north of the Netherlands, where she was raised in a Protestant household that blended structure with a quiet rebellion against rigidity.

Her childhood was grounded, shaped by time in nature, and marked by her parents’ early divorce — a rupture that taught her independence before most children even understand the concept. From an early age, she absorbed values that now form the spine of her leadership: directness, responsibility, and a refusal to look away when something doesn’t make sense.

Hadewych studied business administration at Erasmus University, and she didn’t set out to change the finance world. But after a decade in corporate consulting, a simple question kept surfacing: what’s the point? That question — and her drive for clarity, integrity, and purpose — eventually led her to Triodos just as the 2008 financial crisis hit.

While big banks crumbled under complex products, Triodos stood firm, having never invested in what they didn’t understand. That same principle guides them today: if it’s not clear, it’s not worth the risk.

Today, Hadewych leads Triodos Investment Management, a €6 billion AUM firm built on that same philosophical foundation — but with a far broader mandate. The firm invests across five key transitions: energy, food, resources, societal systems, and well-being.

These aren’t just ESG and Impact categories — they’re deeply connected areas that drive real, systemic change.

Triodos made its first wind energy loan in 1986, right after Chernobyl. It began investing in financial inclusion in 1994, before microfinance was a formal asset class. Today, it’s working with UNICEF to pioneer child-lens investing — developing a framework to assess companies based on their impact on future generations.

Its portfolio includes solar-powered irrigation in Africa, seaweed protein startups in Europe, and financial institutions in Latin America that have grown from NGOs into regulated banks.

At Triodos, every investment must show not just expected returns, but why it matters. Whether it’s private equity, debt, or listed markets, the approach stays consistent: clear minimum standards, concentrated portfolios, and strong alignment between values and outcomes.

And yes, it walks away when deals don’t align, even if the financial return looks good. Especially then. Because “all money has impact — every euro, dollar, or pound. The question is whether it’s positive or negative, and whether you’re conscious of it.”

Few firms can claim a 30-year track record of pure-play impact investing. Even fewer have helped define the field and publish their standards for others to use. Triodos has done all of that — and more.

They’re on a mission to make impact investing the new normal. It’s an ambitious goal — and this episode shows what it takes to get there.

Tune in to find out!

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Additional Resources:

Triodos Website

Triodos LinkedIn

Hadewych Kuiper LinkedIn

Chapters

1. Intro (00:00:00)

2. Early life shaped by values and nature (00:04:29)

3. Business administration studies and the Erasmus exchange experience (00:08:48)

4. Joining VODW Marketing and early career in consulting (00:12:18)

5. Moving from consulting to Triodos Bank when the 2008 financial crisis hit (00:14:30)

6. Becoming commercial director, then managing director at Triodos Investment Management (00:25:02)

7. Triodos Investment Management – a high-level overview and theory of change (00:29:52)

8. An ambitious goal: Making impact investing the new normal (00:36:14)

9. Triodos’ five investment transitions (00:42:39)

10. Maintaining a consistent impact approach across diverse asset classes (00:54:40)

11. Integrated approach to impact, risk, and return (00:58:36)

12. Triodos’ minimum adverse impact assessment (01:03:38)

13. Consistent engagement before, during, and after investment (01:07:20)

14. Challenges with impact data quality (01:12:43)

15. Transforming the financial system beyond direct investment (01:17:11)

16. Using blended finance (01:20:09)

17. Leadership transformation and personal growth (01:24:48)

18. Only 20% of people need to embrace change to transform society (01:26:29)

19. Rapid-fire questions (01:32:57)

20. Contact information (01:40:18)