Students Reflection Blogs from their Sustainable Investing Research Consulting Project Experience.
In recent years, my understanding of sustainability has shifted from one centered on minimizing harm to one focused on creating positive ecological and social value...
When I think about what drew me into sustainable finance, I often return to a pattern I first began noticing while working with UNCDF in Senegal...
What if investing was not just about managing risk, but about reshaping the systems that determine those risks in the first place? That question sits at the heart of the project we are working with this semester.
Our practicum aims to explore the mechanism in which extreme climate events shock the financial system. We focus on a specific chain: how the recent LA wildfires impacted the insurance market, then ultimately affected the value of the S&P 500 index portfolio. By mapping this specific risk transmission mechanism, we hope to uncover economic incentives to promote effective climate action.
Over the past few weeks, I have been working on a practicum project that explores how graduate students can navigate the job market more intentionally by accessing better information about corporate behavior...
One of the most rewarding aspects of my graduate program has been the opportunity to apply what I’ve been learning in the classroom to a real-world project. This semester, I am working with an advisory firm that is helping to push the boundaries of sustainable finance. The initiative we’ve been tasked with is ambitious: design a framework for system-level investing.
Systems as a theme has been around me for all my life. Growing up the systems around me were shaped by culture, religion and language. Over time I noticed the professional systems emerging around me...
Transitioning from the comfort zone of pure finance into the world of sustainable consulting has been a compelling journey. My earlier academic and professional experiences had taught me to value precision, predictability, and strict adherence to frameworks. Yet this recent sustainable investing consulting project forced me to interrogate those instincts and rethink how finance can actively shape a better future.
My SIRI Practicum project focuses on ESG metrics, corporate responsibility, and talent strategy, specifically on the role that students and fresh graduates play in driving private companies towards being more socially, politically, and environmentally responsible.
As a graduate student concentrating in Climate, Energy, and Environment at Columbia SIPA, I have always been fascinated by how principles of sustainability and human rights are translated into corporate action. Much of my prior exposure to this field - whether at multilateral organizations or in policy research - has focused on the development of high-level frameworks and standards. This semester’s practicum gives me a unique chance to see the other side of the equation...
Entering this practicum, I found myself working in a sector that is not quite familiar to me. My academic and professional background has centered on international relations, security, and communications, but sustainability and investment haven’t been areas where I held direct experience or knowledge. That quickly changed at the start of this project, when our client introduced us to the foundations of sustainable investing and the role of corporate governance and ethics in shaping financial decisions.
To someone raised in New York’s concrete jungle, the idea of working in Guyana’s forests feels both foreign and strangely familiar - a reminder that the land beneath my city was once just as densely wooded. This semester, I am fortunate enough to be part of the team conducting research in the sustainable forestry and timber industry in Guyana...