John: In all the effective altruism screens, the animals always come out on top. So it was a good place for us to focus and think, “Perhaps we can make a difference.” It’s an unsustainable model with such huge effects in so many areas, and it is also under-recognized. And then, of course, animal suffering - industrialized animal agriculture subjects tens of billions of thinking, feeling animals to lives of extreme confinement, emotional trauma, painful mutilations, inhumane slaughter. It is crucial in declining public health: antibiotic resistance, viral outbreaks, food contamination, health problems, food insecurity. So we looked at factory farming and how animal agriculture, if done in an industrial way, causes so many problems: environmental degradation, climate change, air and water pollution, loss of biodiversity. You have to pick something you think is going to be a cornerstone issue instead of just trying to fix little things that have gone beyond fixing, really. I’ve evolved over the years of chasing this or that. Timi: I’ve been an animal activist and environmentalist since grammar school. Their concern for animals led them to impact investing. I used to chair the board at Santa Clara University, and even our professors can’t afford to live here, let alone the service workers and everyone else it takes to run a university. Not just the most underserved have to look elsewhere, but our whole middle class. The housing shortage is one of the biggest problems in Silicon Valley. We might do some workforce housing, wraparound services or something of that nature locally. We’re just in the early stages of investigating how we might work together. The integration will probably first occur on a local project - like our philanthropy, start locally and figure it out - rather than a global one. John: There’s a lot of energy around affordable housing. The family plans to leverage its philanthropic, investment and real estate power to help alleviate the Bay Area’s housing crisis. You have to create markets for them to get the price down. My final Bill Gates reference: The Green Premium is still very significant in a lot of construction building materials. We’re going to be trading off some profitability in projects to demonstrate, as well as create markets for, the feasibility of some of these new materials. John: Yeah, we’re using more sustainable materials, we’re using green concrete. It was like, “Let’s let him carry on there.” And we moved to other areas. was already doing a lot of the work that could be done on the business side, which was amazing.
Timi: As we went through that process of figuring out the most effective place to give in climate, we did go to buildings first. The Sobratos’ fortune is in real estate, but they have left tackling that sector’s emissions to the family business and focused their climate philanthropy elsewhere.
John: I wouldn’t say we’re staunch effective altruists, but we believe in that as an interesting way to sort of narrow down from all the possible things you might do to what could be most effective. But the conversation also touched on how the couple approach giving, their perspective on the Giving Pledge, the family’s burgeoning interest in affordable housing, and what John thinks is “ridiculous” about donor-advised funds.īelow are seven things to know about John and Timi Sobrato, along with some highlights from that discussion, edited for clarity. I recently had an hour-long conversation with John and Timi to learn about the family foundation’s new $23 million climate portfolio. The Bay Area clan’s wealth is estimated at close to $6 billion. and Susan Sobrato, as well as the former CEO of the family’s real estate business, which reached $10 billion in assets in 2019 and whose board he still chairs.
They’re heirs to a vast real estate fortune - and signatories of the Giving Pledge. They also have both the intention and the means to do more than most.
TIMI INTEGRATIONS HOW TO
John Michael and Timi Sobrato are passionate about animals, democracy, climate change and evaluating how to fund those areas through the lens of effective altruism.
0 kommentar(er)
