Maria Mähl Leads GIX Product Strategy to Bring Climate Assets Into Regulated U.S. Markets

décembre 16, 2025

11:47 am

When Green Impact Exchange unveiled its 2026 product roadmap, the announcement did more than outline a set of new financial instruments. It signaled an attempt to rewire how public markets engage with climate, governance, and long-duration capital. At the center of that effort is Maria Mähl, newly appointed Chief Product Officer and Executive Vice President of GIX, tasked with translating an ambitious institutional vision into market-ready reality.

GIX is no ordinary venue. As the only U.S. stock exchange dedicated exclusively to sustainable investment, and the nation’s 18th approved exchange, it is positioning itself as infrastructure for a transition economy that existing markets were not built to serve. Mähl’s appointment formalizes that intent. She joins the GIX executive team reporting directly to CEO Daniel Labovitz, with a mandate to execute a roadmap that places environmental assets, governance credibility, and capital formation inside the U.S. regulatory perimeter.

A product roadmap built for capital formation, not optics

The timing is deliberate. Climate-aligned capital flows remain far below what is required for a resilient global transition, while voluntary carbon markets, tokenized assets, and ESG-linked products remain fragmented and weakly governed. GIX’s 2026 roadmap is an attempt to address those failures structurally.

Its planned suite includes the SAFE Trust, designed to convert certified carbon credits into regulated equity securities; the GIDX Digital Gateway, linking tokenized and traditional equity markets; a revenue-based U.S. Green Economy Index; and GIX Alpha, a voluntary listing tier focused on governance and long-term value creation. All products are subject to SEC review ahead of the exchange’s planned mid-2026 launch.

For Mähl, the throughline is credibility. “Voluntary carbon market credits currently trade in unregulated over-the-counter transactions resulting in transaction terms that are not transparent, have no meaningful price discovery and suffer from low liquidity,” she told SDG News.

The SAFE Trust model, she argues, creates standardized, fungible exposure to carbon credits under federal securities law protections—unlocking participation from institutional investors, market makers, and corporates alike.

SDG News Exclusive: Inside GIX’s market logic

Following GIX’s announcements, SDG News convened an exclusive strategic exchange with CEO Daniel Labovitz and Chief Product Officer Maria Mähl to interrogate a deeper question confronting global finance: why capital markets stopped serving capital formation for sustainability-driven companies—and what structural changes are required to correct that failure.

Why capital markets stopped serving capital formation

For decades, innovation in exchange infrastructure has focused on trading speed and cost efficiency. Less attention has been paid to capital formation—particularly for companies requiring long-duration investment to scale sustainability-driven technologies. This has coincided with a sharp decline in public listings and a growing reliance on private markets that are opaque, lightly regulated, and often mismatched to long-term transition capital.

SDG News asks

Mr. Labovitz, you’ve emphasized that GIX is “putting capital back at the center of capital markets” to allocate the estimated $30 trillion of climate-aligned investment. How does the combined synergy of your four announced products—the regulated SAFE Trust, the Digital Gateway, Alpha, and the Index—create a complete system that fundamentally realigns capital markets around companies building a resilient, resource-efficient economy?

Daniel Labovitz CEO, GIX

Almost all of the innovation in the exchange space over the past 40 years has been about faster trading and cheaper trading. There’s been almost no innovation that helps companies raise capital, and helps investors allocate capital efficiently. That’s part of the reason why we’ve seen the number of public companies drop in half since the mid-1990s.

Companies that need capital for sustainability, and companies that need capital to scale sustainable innovations are turning to private capital instead of public markets, but ultimately that’s not good for the companies or the markets: private equity is unregulated, opaque, can be illiquid, and often isn’t set up for the kinds of long-term investments that these companies need for sustainability.

The thing that makes a registered national securities exchange unique—the thing that only exchanges can do—is list innovative products and companies. That’s where GIX comes in: we’re building a public, regulated market focused on this $30 trillion opportunity to connect companies who need capital for sustainability, and sustainability-minded investors who are desperate to deploy it.

Why carbon markets have failed to scale—and the role of regulation

Despite growing corporate demand, voluntary carbon markets remain fragmented, opaque, and largely inaccessible to institutional investors. Over-the-counter transactions, inconsistent pricing, and project-specific risk have constrained liquidity and undermined confidence—raising questions about whether carbon markets can scale without formal regulatory architecture.

SDG News asks

The GIX SAFE Trust introduces regulatory oversight to the currently fragmented carbon-credit market. How crucial is this shift to a regulated equity structure for generating the trust and transparency needed to unlock institutional capital?

Maria Mähl Chief Product Officer and Executive Vice President, GIX

Voluntary carbon market credits currently trade in unregulated over-the-counter transactions resulting in transaction terms that are not transparent, have no meaningful price discovery and suffer from low liquidity.

Our SAFE Trusts allow carbon credits to be traded as standardized securities, similar to an ETF, on a regulated market. Because SAFE Trusts are SEC- and GIX-regulated products, they are subject to federal securities law protections. The credits are converted into standardized units, creating a fungible, risk-adjusted ton of carbon that enables efficient price discovery, with quotes and trades publicly reported.

This is what will enable market makers, retail and institutional investors, and speculators to participate in the carbon market—expanding it beyond companies simply seeking offsets and creating liquidity for buyers who wish to hold credits for compliance and transition purposes.

Governance, not disclosure, as the greenwashing filter

As scrutiny of corporate sustainability claims intensifies, investors and regulators are increasingly questioning whether disclosure alone is sufficient to distinguish credible actors from greenwashing. Attention is shifting toward governance—specifically, how boards oversee sustainability commitments and connect them to long-term value creation.

SDG News asks

The GIX Alpha voluntary tier is designed to help investors distinguish credible actors from greenwashers. Beyond disclosure, what governance commitments must Alpha companies make?

Maria Mähl Chief Product Officer and Executive Vice President, GIX

We are doing for the green economy what Nasdaq did for the tech economy—turning the exchange into the premier destination for companies driving long-term value creation.

Companies in the GIX Alpha tier commit to enhanced corporate governance: a clear connection by the Board between sustainability and value creation; robust oversight of sustainability commitments; clear, measurable goals; and transparent reporting on progress.

At the same time, we’re not looking to add to the reporting burden. Our standards are aligned with existing frameworks. This is the information investors need to avoid greenwashing and turn corporate environmental commitments into measurable market value.

Measuring the green economy by what it produces

Traditional sustainable finance metrics have focused on emissions intensity and risk mitigation. Policymakers and investors are increasingly seeking tools that identify where economic value is being created through transition-aligned activity.

SDG News asks

How does the GIX U.S. Green Economy Index provide clearer insight than traditional sustainability metrics?

Maria Mähl Chief Product Officer and Executive Vice President, GIX

For a long time, sustainable index products focused narrowly on emissions reductions. With our green economy index, we’re shifting the focus to what companies actually produce—looking at green revenue.

We’re going back to what Charles Dow originally did with the Dow Jones index: creating a window into the economy. In this case, it’s a window into the green economy, tracking companies with highly material revenue alignment across renewable energy, energy efficiency, infrastructure, transportation, circular economy, and enabling technologies.

From measurement to market signal

The same logic underpins the GIX U.S. Green Economy Index. Rather than relying on abstract ESG scoring, the index tracks companies based on revenue generated from environmentally aligned economic activity—from renewable energy and efficiency to transport, circular economy models, and enabling technologies. For policymakers and institutional investors, the index offers a clearer reference point for assessing where the transition economy is actually producing value.

A career built at the intersection of finance, technology, and policy

Mähl’s path to GIX reflects that same systems-level orientation. Over the past 15 years, she has founded and scaled multiple companies—GIX is her fifth—taking ventures from early capital raises through IPOs. Her experience spans asset management, fintech, climate transition, regulatory reporting standards, carbon markets, blockchain, and AI-enabled product development.

Most recently, she served as Partner and Head of ESG Solutions USA at ESG Book, helping build the firm into a global API-enabled SaaS platform aligned with complex regulatory frameworks including CSRD and ISSB. Earlier roles include leadership positions at Arabesque AI Asset Management and the Clinton Global Initiative, alongside advisory work with UN bodies, governments, international organizations, and venture capital firms. Her contributions have been recognized in Sweden among both the country’s most powerful women in business and its leading sustainability leaders.

Why this spotlight matters now

GIX’s ambition is not incremental reform. It is a bid to restore trust, oversight, and purpose to markets tasked with financing climate resilience, industrial transition, and resource efficiency at scale. Mähl’s role is to operationalize that ambition—turning governance principles into listings standards, market logic into products, and sustainability claims into regulated, investable reality.