Robert Sternthal
Managing Director
Rob joined the energy & power investment banking group at Piper Sandler in May 2021 and has over 20 years of investment banking experience. Rob helps lead the renewables & clean energy effort after having been responsible for financing more than $20 billion in renewable transactions since 2010.
Prior to joining the firm, Sternthal was responsible for building teams at two separate platforms, including the founding of CohnReznick Capital Markets, focused on the renewable energy and sustainability sectors. As such, Sternthal has been an active leader in the renewable energy sector for more than 10 years, speaking at numerous conferences globally as well as building one of the pre-eminent conferences in the sector. Sternthal also spent more than eight years at Credit Suisse in New York and Tokyo where he led structured finance transactions for the Asset-Backed Securities and Commercial Real Estate Groups. Prior to that, Sternthal worked as an attorney for Milbank and the US Securities & Exchange Commission. Sternthal graduated from Emory University with a bachelor’s degree in economics and Temple University School of Law with a Juris doctorate.
Piper Sandler
Piper Sandler is a leading investment bank, that enables growth and success for our clients through deep sector expertise, candid advice and a differentiated, highly productive culture. . In 2020, Piper Sandler was ranked 1 Advisor for Mergers and Acquisitions for Banks, No.2 Senior underwriter of municipal negotiated U.S. transactions and No.2 for U.S. Merger and Acquisitions deals less than $500m.
“As more companies prioritise disruptive, sustainability-oriented strategic initiatives, investors are positioned to ultimately derive outsized returns as these technologies eventually deliver compelling economic benefits in addition to ESG gains”
COP-26 has sped up the rush to ESG investing.
There is now huge pressure to invest in the ESG sectors, not just greening and climate change but in the social and governance aspects and diversity aspects too, Robert says. “Whether they believe it or not most companies will need to adopt changes in the current environment to achieve certain ESG goals or standards. Even funds that invest in normal middle market companies are being asked about their own ESG policies towards investing, so it has created this flood of investment in companies that are either directly ESG-focused or otherwise have ESG plans in place, and I think the COP-26 just furthers that agenda, with the added pressure and buy-in, it just accelerates it.”
Adaptation is still largely invisible.
Robert says there are obvious exceptions where some industries are having to plan for future risks but otherwise there is little evidence of adaptation awareness. “I currently do not see the majority of companies doing anything to meet ESG standards.
A new generation and new technologies are the solutions to climate change.
“We now have this groundswell from the younger generations who are going to be the most affected by it, up to the people who in charge who are a lot older, and some of them really believe it,” Rob says. “We will need to see Leadership adjustments or changes as the ice caps are melting, as an example..”
He says there has to be some kind of dramatic, transformational change in the way we deal with it. “Maybe it's direct air capture, but it's expensive, and it's not there. Everything moving more quickly towards commercialisation is the only thing that's going to work.”
Sustainable investments: a standardised view is needed but is far off.
Investors have to look at every company and whether they are doing the easier things like recycling, using software and AI to reduce electricity needs, helping employees drive electric cars, and so on, Robert says. “Then you could go all the way up and down the supply chain to look at whether suppliers are doing things that are sustainable and paying a minimum wage. When I think of sustainability, I really only think about energy waste - unless you're in the food industry and then you have to think about sustainable food. You can really drive yourself nuts with all this!
“It’s a huge issue that there's no standardised system to measure your own ESG goals or put a number on a company, and we're a long way away from that.”
Companies need a financial motivation to do the right thing.
Robert says economics will drive change. “Private companies do what's economically in their best interest. If they own a building and solar is cheaper than being on the grid, they're going to do it, and they are. There's a massive transition in energy usage, but it’s all driven by savings. But either an investor or a capital provider requires ESG, or there's a groundswell of belief in a private company that it needs to make a change.”
Robert’s specialism has long been renewable energy, but he is now focusing more on waste and recycling, and on transformational projects and assets. “We are considering raising capital for a hydrogen plant that will ultimately be green. I have tried to help other companies transition or understand the economics of that transition, but I don't think it comes up as much as it does for people in the industry. I have solar on my roof, I drive an electric car, I try to live most of what I speak about on a daily basis.
The financial sector has a huge profitable opportunity.
“What's amazing is that the breakthrough will occur as more companies prioritise investments today in disruptive, sustainability-oriented strategic initiatives that also have the potential to deliver attractive economics down the road,” Robert says. “When you look at impact funds, they're meant to be green, but they invest in things that make money today.”
Bill Gates announcing his fund sparked an explosion of other initiatives like SoftBank, but it’s still not enough, Robert says. “We need more scientists, more research, more engineers, to build this out.”