The Yale Initiative on Sustainable Finance (YISF), a joint project of the Yale Center for Business and the Environment (CBEY) and the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy (YCELP), is pleased to announce its 2021 Annual Symposium, focused on The Way Forward in Sustainable Finance. We are pleased to host Hanneke Smits, the CEO of BNY Mellon Investment Management, and Sarah Bloom Raskin, the former U.S. Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, as the keynote speakers for our two plenary sessions—along with four panels of sustainability thought leaders.
The YISF Symposium will be held virtually on Friday, October 29, 2021, from 9:00 to 4:15. Please refer to the schedule below for details. You can sign up for the Symposium at this link.
2021 Annual Symposium: The Way Forward in Sustainable Finance
Friday, October 29, 2021
Yale University (hybrid)
8:45 – 9:00: Welcome
Virtual session
Todd Cort, Faculty Co-Director, Yale Initiative on Sustainable Finance
9:00 – 10:00: Opening plenary: Fireside Chat on Sustainable Investment
Virtual session
Hanneke Smits, CEO of BNY Mellon Investment Management
Daniel C. Esty, Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law & Policy at Yale University; Faculty Co-Director, Yale Initiative on Sustainable Finance
10:15 – 11:30: Parallel panels session
Virtual session
Panel 1: Portfolios and sustainability
Alexander Bassen and Othar Kordsachia, Hamburg University – Index Construction for Sustainable Development Investing
Sam Hilton and Joanne Lee, WWF – Assessing Portfolio Impact – Tools to Measure Biodiversity and SDG Footprints of Financial Portfolios
Ulrich Atz, New York University – Does Sustainability Generate Better Financial Performance? Review, Meta-analysis and Propositions
Panel 2: Lingering issues in sustainable finance
Olaf Weber, University of Waterloo – Addressing Regulatory Constraints of Carbon Tax in a Resource-Based Economy
Nathan de Arriba-Sellier and Daniel C. Esty, Yale University – Zeroing-in on Net-Zero: Is the Business Community Walking the Talk?
Kelly Clark and Magali Delmas, University of California, Los Angeles – Increasing IMPACT: An Assessment of ESG Metrics and Recommendations to Improve Their Utility
1:30 – 2:45: Parallel panels session
Virtual Session
Panel 3: Sustainability beyond carbon: diversity and biodiversity
Bola Olusanya, The Nature Conservancy – The Nature Conservancy: The Journey to Pragmatic Portfolio Decarbonization
John Joaquin Bohorquez and David Meyers, Conservation Finance Alliance – An Integrated Blended Finance Fund for Coral Reefs
Anthony Campagna, ISS ESG – The Content of Their Character. How Diversity & Inclusion Continue to Drive Change
Panel 4: Green bonds
Dion Bongaerts and Dirk Schoenmaker, Rotterdam School of Management – The security design of green debt instruments
Nathaniel Springer and Susanna Gibbons, University of Minnesota – Qualifying the impact of green bonds: using life-cycle assessment to measure comprehensive financial and environmental return on investment
Alexander Vasa, Interamerican Development Bank – A novel database for green bonds to support investment analysis and decision making, research and regulatory decisions: The Green Bond Transparency Platform
3:00 – 4:00: Closing plenary: “The Impact of Climate Change on Financial Markets”
Yale University (hybrid)
Sarah Bloom Raskin, former Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury; former Governor of the Federal Reserve Board; Professor of the Practice of Law at Duke University
4:00 – 4:15: Wrap-up and close
Yale University (hybrid)
Daniel C. Esty, Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law & Policy at Yale University; Faculty Co-Director, Yale Initiative on Sustainable Finance
YISF 2021 Annual Symposium is graciously sponsored by:
[BNY Mellon logo]