My Moral Compass: Natasha Mueller on Mental Health, Our Changing Climate, and How Impact Investing Can Come in Many Forms

By Stacey Lindsay

Eight years ago, Natasha Mueller made an investment that changed her life. She was managing her family's portfolio when an advisor presented an opportunity to invest in a solar park. She and her family decided to go all in: They bought the park outright. It felt right, says Natasha, because it was contributing to climate change mitigation and putting renewable energy onto the national grid.  To this day, it's one of the best performing assets in Natasha's portfolio.

At the time, investing to have an impact was just beginning to seep into the financial lexicon. Natasha’s family wasn't on board to continue in that direction, nor were her advisors. It might have been easier to quickly dismiss the lucrative decision as a lucky draw, a random act that happened to align profits with purpose. But Natasha thought otherwise. The solar park was her "lightbulb moment," she says. "That was when I realized, oh wow, you can actually have an impact while investing. So after that, I wanted to do it more."

Fueled by a desire to make an impact and armed with a background in political economy and experience working in her family's textile business, Natasha had no experience in the financial industry at the time—but she still dived head on into the world of impact investing. And she learned everything she could. Natasha joined networks like Toniic, CREO, and The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), to meet like-minded people, and enrolled in Harvard University's Impact Investing for the Next Generation program, a collaborative course between Harvard, University of Zurich , and the World Economic Forum. The program explores the role family offices can have in impact investing and the ways younger generations can implement it. Natasha also became a founding member of The Conduit, a social club for people driving positive change. Being so proactive in building her toolkit and contacts gave Natasha "the confidence to find her way into impact investing," she says.

Natasha's portfolio today is a kaleidoscope of her interests. She invests in companies working toward improving global food systems, clean technology, education, the environment, and gender equality. She's aims to be part of systemic change by supporting overlapping sectors. For instance, food systems, she says, "are super important for the environment and for people's physical and mental health." And education is critical "because if you don't have an educated class you can't have a productive economic workforce." (It also has a massive impact on children and "empowering women to break out of the poverty cycle.")

If there is one area that holds the firmest grip on her heart and impact initiatives, though, it is mental health. Having lost her father to suicide when she was seventeen, Natasha has been impacted by mental health issues, including depression. Those close to her have as well. The topic is an area in which she's done some of her most important life's work. She has worked on policy initiatives and, two years ago, invested in and donated to United for Global Mental Health, a globally supported, nationally led mental campaign that provides tools to advocates in fifteen countries to help amplify their national and local mental health efforts. Last year campaigners in Tonga convinced their government to triple their mental health budget. "This has had the biggest impact of all the work I've been doing," Natasha says. Mental health "is the crisis of our time."

All this effort to create change stems from Natasha's lifelong desire to do good. Before working for her family's company she worked for the UN and dreamed of entering the Peace Corps. Making an impact seems to be baked into her DNA. It also unspools beyond her investments and donations. Natasha has long been an active activist and volunteer, giving her energy to the issues that speak to her. "To have impact you don't necessarily have to invest your financial capital," she says. "You can also invest your human capital, your time, your efforts. You can convene people around a theme and have a lot of impact that way, too."

It's an eye-opening statement, particularly for those who want to get involved in impact investing but feel they don't have the means to do so. Natasha openly talks about these barriers. Some of the minimum tickets can be quite high, she says. "If you don't have access to capital, that can be hard." However, there is a bigger movement of lower ticket level investments, offering a substantially more accessible entry point. She credits organizations like Beyond Capital Fund, which she has been involved with for years, for opening the door for anyone to get involved. Through its Ambassador Program, Beyond Capitals provides an important service by co-investing in a safe space "so your risk is minimized a lot." And Natasha takes advantage of opportunities to help educate about impact investing: She currently holds an advisory board position at the Centre for Sustainable Finance and Private Wealth at the University of Zurich.

Natasha sees impact investing growing to the mainstream and the mythology surrounding it—the assumption that impact investing requires a sacrifice on returns—being busted. But she is concerned about a potential greenwashing effect; that bigger investment banks could say they're involved in impact investing, but, in fact, they're not. This will take education and discernment on the investor's side. But whatever the challenges ahead may be, impact investing is illuminating the collective responsibility that everyone needs to do their part and be aware of their actions. It is going to make people more aware that no matter what they do, it will have an impact, negative or positive, says Natasha And as people "can work to mitigate the negative impact, I think that's good.".

But what about despondence? How do we break that trace of despair that invisibly links so many who want to make a positive change but feel totally overwhelmed? Natasha appreciates this question as it highlights the essentiality of hope. She uses the effect that climate change is having on mental health to illustrate her thought. Today's younger generations "are the first to really live with the effects of climate change," she says—and this is making a detrimental impact on people's emotional and mental wellbeing. But "one thing that helps is activated hope." Seeing people come together and use their energy, money, and time as a force for good is a means to find the light through the darkness.

"Impact investing gives you the tools so you feel like you're doing something about it."

To learn more about Natasha and her global impact efforts, visit: natashamüller.com.

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