2014-2015

While working at Harvard Kennedy School as a Senior Research Fellow, Granito Group’s founder Rodrigo Tavares came across Harvard’s Initiative for Responsible Investment, then led by David Wood, one of the groundbreakers of ESG research at the university. The interactions with colleagues crystalized Rodrigo’s initial idea that global financial markets could allocate significant pools of capital in consideration of environmental, social, and governance issues, alongside financial motivations.

Still attached to the university, by the end of 2014 Rodrigo made the decision to create a new company. The first benchmarking, business models, and market studies were developed confirming the potential opportunities for new service providers. If the sustainable economy was to grow, its supporting infrastructure would need to scale up accordingly (specialized consulting and advisory firms, standard-setting bodies, industry associations, ESG rating agencies, dedicated think tanks, data providers, specialized newspapers, etc.). Reputable consulting firms specializing in corporate sustainability existed in several countries, but no dedicated consulting firms on sustainable finance.

Conversations were also scheduled with a range of global stakeholders and thought leaders to test Granito Group’s initial assumptions and pinpoint additional market opportunities and expectations.

October 2014

The Granito Group was incorporated in Brazil, then as Granito & Partners. "Granito" means "granite" in Portuguese.

January 2015

Before launching the company, Granito secured its first client, GranBio, a large provider of biochemicals and clean energy focused on converting biomass into biofuels from cellulose carbon. We collaborated with the company to identify sources of equity and debt funding and to review market conditions for a fundraise.

May 17, 2015

The Granito Group is formally launched. The announcement was covered by Consultancy.uk, a British online platform for the advisory and consulting industry (“Impact Business Advisory Granito & Partners Launches”) and by leading Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo (“Consultoria Propõe Converter Empresas a ‘Novo Capitalismo” [Consultancy Proposes to Convert Companies to a ‘New Capitalism’].

By then, socially responsible investing had been around for decades – an investment strategy that considers the social impact and moral values of an investment. But very few players considered the financial relevance and the business case of managing capital through ESG lenses. This was a new perspective that emerged with the creation of the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment in 2005. But it took roughly 15 years, in the early 2020s, for ESG to gain momentum and be recognized by financial players as a viable financial solution.

Together with several other players, the Granito Group contributed to the mainstreaming of what it used to be an incipient strategy by working with multiple clients in different geographies to help them taking the first steps towards the sustainable economy.