{"id":27494,"date":"2020-02-13T18:22:24","date_gmt":"2020-02-13T23:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.greenmoney.com\/2025\/?p=27494"},"modified":"2020-02-27T14:30:20","modified_gmt":"2020-02-27T19:30:20","slug":"a-journey-to-sustainable-finance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.greenmoney.com\/2025\/a-journey-to-sustainable-finance\/","title":{"rendered":"A Journey to Sustainable Finance"},"content":{"rendered":"
>> Back to February 15th Edition 2020<\/a><\/div>\n

\"DominiI might be the only ecologist on Wall Street, but I don\u2019t mind.<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s exactly where I want to be: after a winding journey through field research, advocacy, and legal work, I believe changing the financial system may be the most effective solution to climate change.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always felt a duty to devote my life and career to solutions to climate change: everything I value is exposed as terribly fragile by this unprecedented threat. What good is a well-funded retirement in a world of extreme inequality and climate disaster? After searching for solutions from personal action to ecology, I now believe the answer is to change the paradigm of the investment community, so that it supports its own sustainability by combating climate change.<\/p>\n

I began my odyssey trying to lead by example: I became a vegan, bought second-hand clothes and furniture, eschewed a car. I fielded the questions about protein sources and almonds, but I had to acknowledge that individual changes are not the answer to systemic problems.<\/p>\n

I became an ecologist, studying how Lyme disease affects its hosts. This disease threatens us because of environmental degradation and loss of biodiversity in our own backyards. I wanted to show that conservation is not about preserving charismatic megafauna and exotic nature preserves for privileged vacationers. I was quickly frustrated, however\u2014there was already plenty of data. More alarming statistics won\u2019t change anyone\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n

So, I went to Argentina, working to equip communities with the tools they needed to advocate for themselves by using UN human rights principles to curtail encroachments by hydraulic fracturing companies. Yet, though meaningful, knowledge of international frameworks and unenforceable constitutional provisions wasn\u2019t getting to the root of the problem either. To work on enforcement, I joined a public interest environmental law group where I helped take on ExxonMobil. After a grueling appellate battle, we won the largest ever award in a Clean Air Act citizen suit. The penalty, however, was less than $20 million.<\/p>\n

I was forced to realize I was thinking too narrowly. To take on the enormity of climate change, our economic systems had to be changed more dramatically than I had imagined. A $20 million fine doesn\u2019t alter Exxon\u2019s single-minded focus on short-term profits. How could we fix the system that encouraged this folly? Go to the source: Exxon\u2019s practices, while harming most people, are ostensibly for the benefit of their shareholders. As the most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change starkly states, continued fossil fuel use isn\u2019t compatible with a healthy and prosperous world. Yet many still accept the idea that making immediate financial returns for shareholders trumps even creating a safe future for those shareholder\u2019s children and for future businesses.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

At Domini Impact Investments, I have had the chance to confront that foundational dogma of modern finance. When I joined the firm, they were attempting to understand and confront the macro risks that threatened our portfolios, from inequality to climate change. Entranced by the potential of this big-picture thinking, which proposed using systems-thinking tools to act on the root causes of macro risks, I jumped at the chance to work on the initiative and learn from the visionary Steve Lydenberg.<\/p>\n

We found that macro risks stemmed from investors\u2019 failure to support the economic, social, and environmental systems that underlie the value in their portfolios. This mindset must fundamentally shift for a sustainable future for investors and the world. With Steve\u2019s Socratic prompting, I lead our efforts to shift this paradigm of finance, making the case for supporting the environment and social systems to some of the world\u2019s largest companies and investors. For example, when some companies in a portfolio cause deforestation, other firms may lose water resources or other crucial ecosystem services. If deforestation proceeds far enough, it could accelerate climate change, harming the global economy. Investors should halt forest loss to ensure their own viability.<\/p>\n

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