An Incredible Scholarly Community

The Sustainable Investing Research Initiative at SIPA is an opportunity to gain practical work experience in consulting, but it is also unique in the way that it creates a dedicated space and community at school with a small group of equally passionate and dedicated students eager to help each other succeed, both academically and professionally.

Professor Flammer has put our teams together in a way that makes each team diverse with experience and expertise. My team is researching the effects on the retirement system in Texas following the ESG boycotting laws. This is a large and broad topic that has financial, legal and political implications. On my team, I bring a background in asset management with a specialization in Swedish pension fund management. My two team members between them have vast experience in finance, legal and policy sectors specifically for green and sustainable finance. This means that we have been able to approach our project from three angles: financial, legal and a policy perspective. This has also allowed us to easily break up the work between us, and lead certain topics of discussion when meeting with experts as well as our client.

Each week we have had the opportunity to meet with the class and learn from each other on how they are approaching their projects. Hearing colleagues mentioning previous work experiences, academic projects or ongoing capstone topics has allowed me to learn more about the opportunities in the field as a whole. Most importantly, it has created a community and network for me at SIPA with peers who share my interest in finding innovative financial solutions for a wide range of sustainability questions. I was impressed by how eager the class was to help each other and how generous everyone has been with introducing each other to connections and experts in their own personal networks.

For my team, the most successful outcome from these sessions has been the introduction to experts of both practice and academia. This includes introductions to esteemed academic, author and former New York Comptroller, Jon Lukomnik, known as one of the pioneers of modern corporate governance. We have been able to engage in topics including system-level investing and the new approach to matching investment and non-investment activities to mitigate systemic risks affecting entire portfolios. For our study this is highly relevant with how it is related to climate change as a result of the continuation of fossil fuels.

SIPA is a lively space that allows you to meet an incredible scholarly community of established and impressive peers. However, as the school is so large it can be challenging to find the time and environment to sit down and discuss your own professional interests and projects, and share practical tools and resources. This is when I am most grateful to be a part of the SIRI initiative.