Article by Julianne Zimmerman
Key Points
- The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) recent 2025 Global Risks Report finds that inequality, climate risk, biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse, warfare, and geoeconomic confrontation are all widely recognized as severe and intensifying threats.
- The report also concludes that these threats are interconnected.
- While recent executive orders undermining DEI, JEDI, and ESG feel overwhelming, investors hold a tremendous amount of power — possibly the only meaningful counter to the threats we face.
- Adasina’s Social Justice Investing approach is inherently intersectional, offering investors a way to make an outsized impact on many of the issues detailed by The WEF’s report.
As I write this article, it’s the first few weeks of the year of the snake, and in my conversations with many investors, I’ve heard lots of people remark that the present and the future feel scary. There is certainly cause for concern. But there is also power in taking informed action.
In the US, a small but well-funded fringe has waged an aggressive campaign to scare investors and institutions away from implementing DEI, JEDI, ESG, inclusion, climate, or other impact programs. That effort has been heavily bolstered in the past month by a flurry of executive orders and agency shutdowns, creating an atmosphere of fear and chaos.
News of wars, climate change, public health threats, and economic insecurity add to the fear. Together, these threats may feel both overwhelming and too controversial to address. One of the goals of the barrage of upheavals is to make you feel overwhelmed and helpless. But you are not helpless. In fact, each of us has the power to vote with our money. And collectively, we hold a tremendous amount of power. We can wield that power. We can act to contain and reduce the threats being weaponized against us.
Recognizing the Shape of Worsening Threats:
The World Economic Forum Global Risks Report 2025
The World Economic Forum Global Risks Report 2025 was released just a few weeks ago, documenting findings from their most recent survey of “over 900 experts across academia, business, government, international organizations, and civil society.” It both reflects and informs a widespread sense that “risks are becoming more complex and urgent, and accentuating a paradigm shift in the world order characterized by greater instability, polarizing narratives, eroding trust and insecurity. Moreover, this is occurring against a background where today’s governance frameworks seem ill-equipped for addressing both known and emergent global risks or countering the fragility that those risks generate.”
Inequality, climate risk, biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse, warfare and geoeconomic confrontation are all recognized as primary and intensifying threats, against a backdrop in which “all 33 risks in the [survey] are expected to worsen in severity from the two-year to the 10-year time horizon.” Most telling is the figure “Global risks landscape: an interconnections map,” reproduced here, which illustrates the report finding that “Inequality (wealth, income) is perceived as the most central risk of all, playing a significant role in both triggering and being influenced by other risks.”
At Adasina, we note that nearly every node in the risks interconnections map — especially, but not exclusively, the Inequality node — corresponds to social (racial, gender, economic, and climate) injustices, and we underscore that both the risks and the injustices have material significance to investors. That risk landscape is being further destabilized by the current tussle over DEI, and recent shuttering of both government and private programs that have proven to reduce the threat level.
Inclusion and DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) Are Material And Actionable Investor Considerations
For investors feeling overwhelmed by recent federal attacks on inclusion and DEI, the facts are in your favor:
- It has long since been established that improving the inclusion or DEI practices of corporations, government agencies, educational institutions, and other organizations improves their performance, increases innovation and competitiveness, and makes them less likely to take on unnecessary risk.
- Companies are acting on this evidence. 87% are increasing or maintaining their DEI budgets.
- The assertion that advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion is unfair, circumvents merit, or violates civil rights laws has been documented to be unsound (see, for example, Alphonso David explaining the disconnect here), with no basis in reality. Moreover, many of the recent executive orders (EOs) issued by the current president have already been challenged or even struck down as lacking legal legitimacy.
- As always, if you have questions about legal or regulatory exposure for any investment-related matter, seek the advice of qualified counsel.
Investors Can Help Create a More Equitable World
As investors, we have the right and the power — and some of us hold the fiduciary responsibility — to base our investment decisions on material information. What could be more material than a global assessment of the evolving risk landscape?
We don’t have to follow along blindly, or accept a worsening world: we have the prerogative to invest to reduce inequality and other injustices, to make informed decisions about how we take on and manage risk. Whether in public markets or private markets, we have the freedom to act on the best available information to turn away from clearly documented hazards and toward more favorable outcomes.
Better yet, we have the means to exercise our rights: there are lots of fund managers and lots of investment vehicles specifically constructed to address the racial, gender, economic, and climate injustices that are driving inequality and other global risks. At Adasina, we offer products that address all four. If you are interested in learning about our products, please contact invest@adasina.com.
So don’t lose heart, and don’t be bullied. Be bold! You can take action, and you can start right now.
- Understand your rights and your legal and regulatory exposure.
- Get super-clear about the outcomes you aspire for your investments — and your philanthropic
capital — to deliver. - Gather an assessment of the risks you are willing to accept, and the ones you want to manage.
Choose aligned advisors, consultants, managers, banks, products, etc. that meet your needs
and objectives. - Repeat as often as needed:
DEI is not dead.
We are not helpless.
We can use the power of the market to shape a better future. - And maybe most importantly, join together with the larger community of investors using their
assets to *decrease* injustice, so our future is healthier, safer, more just and more prosperous.
In the words of the Style Council, we can actually try changing things. The choice is ours: what future
will we create together?