Co-founder & Chief Operating Officer, MotherTree, and Chief Financial Officer, Paragon Impact
Craig Wallington is an entrepreneur dedicated to addressing climate and biodiversity emergencies. He believes many of the solutions to these crises already exist and we need to focus our collective efforts on rolling these out at speed and scale. Key to this roll-out will be funding – we need money invested to mitigate our negative impacts on the planet and divested from activities that continue to cause harm. And we need businesses, large and small, incumbent and disruptor, to be able to access this funding.
We know that when it comes to tackling these crises, we have to set our ambition high – we need to do ‘everything, everywhere, all at once’ − and where we deploy our money in the next 10 years will be a key factor in determining whether we deliver this ambition.
In line with this, Craig co-founded MotherTree to make it easy for businesses and consumers to align their finances to their values. Its aim is to move £1 billion into the green economy by 2025, in the process spurring banks, pension funds and other allocators of capital to prioritise nature-positive investments over fossil fuels and other damaging activities.
MotherTree has to date supported clients in moving £2 million to greener products and has worked with large organisations such as a leading UK fintech and a large global health charity to evaluate the impact of their finances. MotherTree has also been featured in the UK press for its Bank League Table, a first-of-its-kind ranking of major British banks enabling consumers to understand the carbon impact of their money.
As COO, Craig has worked with his co-founder to define and deliver MotherTree’s strategy and has developed the tools and products offered to clients to help them decarbonise their finances.
Craig is also CFO of Paragon Impact, which is building a market-leading software platform and assembling an expert team to guide clients in developing and implementing their impact strategies. Paragon Impact has served clients across South Africa and Europe and was recently awarded the Jersey Sustainable Finance Award for Innovation.
Craig has assisted Paragon’s founders as they scale the business by supporting through two successful fundraising rounds and building FP&A, budgeting, pricing analysis and other finance processes.
Finally, Craig works as an advisor to other sustainability start-ups on their fundraising and strategy, and most recently became a coach in the Grindstone Accelerator Programme.
