The world is facing unprecedented systemic challenges of both ecological and economic nature that are straining not only our resources but also the intellectual frameworks and finance/economics theories on which we have relied for several generations. We continue to be burdened by a lack of political resolve and a market system that, in pursuing short-term profits, has directed trillions of dollars of global capital into economic activities that are now posing a danger to not only markets and economies, but also to our society and our planet.
These disconnects need urgent attention. To address them, we must do more than tinker on the margins of our existing disciplines. We need to break through and create new understandings about the true systems of interdependence, correlation, and causality that link and drive our world. What we need, in effect, is a thoughtful rewiring of the source code of capitalism.
The recognition of this problem is widespread and it has sparked pioneering new thinking around the world. Innovation is both deepening and accelerating. The landscape is full of new, exciting, and complicated theories and practices. In many ways we are witnessing the emergence of whole new “ecosystems of thought,” within which innovators are:
• mapping and measuring the financial materiality of sustainability to firms and investors;
• chronicling the negative externalities of impact materiality, or how those same firms and investors affect our global biosphere and civilization;
• implementing promising new theories and practices of impact investing, which seeks joint financial and sustainability gains;
• working on how to mitigate harm and improve outcomes within major specific domains such as climate change, water use, biodiversity, inequality, and many others.
Yet, the creative force that hurls people into new corners of thought must be matched by efforts to find common ground. To make progress, a blend of creation and consensus, innovation and standardization, vision and practicality is required. This takes time and can only be accomplished through careful discussions among the innovators. Some of those discussions can take place in writing. Others need to happen through careful, curated conversations.
To succeed, it is important to provide a platform for such discussions—a platform that brings together and fosters dialogue among the key players (from the private and public sectors, policymakers, and academia), that explores pathways to consensus and a shared vision, and that stimulates the co-creation of a more sustainable world. The Sustainable Finance Seminar provides such a platform.
