Fund Managers Answer the Call to Save Earth’s Biodiversity
A Dutch sustainability expert wants financial giants to apply the lessons of ESG to plants, animals and ecosystems. Some are starting to listen.
The Svalbard finance industry expedition in April 2018.
Source: Anita de Horde
A band of 30 finance executives sat in silence on the ice, their eyes closed. With no sound but the Arctic wind and the occasional creaking of snow boots, some began to weep as they contemplated the consequences of global warming—both for the glaciers around them and the entire world.
This unusual subzero meditation was a defining moment in an expedition aimed at connecting executives from the biggest Dutch banks, insurers, and fund managers with the devastating realities of climate change. Anita de Horde, a sustainable finance manager who together with a polar explorer led the 2018 voyage to the Svalbard archipelago between Norway and the North Pole, says the financial sector has a responsibility to act—and the resources to do so.