S3 - E1 The Evolution of Sustainable Finance with Alex Edmans

Innovations in Sustainable Finance

In this episode, I speak with Alex Edmans, a professor of Finance at London Business School. Many of you in the audience will have heard of Alex before. We traced his evolution of thought regarding sustainable finance, covering his extensive body of work, including the book “Grow the Pie,” his academic papers, op-eds, and TED Talks, including his most recent paper: Sustainable Investing: Evidence from the Field.

My favorite takeaways from the conversation were:

1. When I asked when he first got interested in sustainability, Alex surprised me by saying he was never interested in sustainability or sustainable finance per se. He was interested in long-term value creation but noticed that sustainability aspects are sometimes important but overlooked or misunderstood.
2. I realized how the concept of competitive advantage is really at the heart of figuring out how a business or an individual can drive change. Focusing on what you can do very well right now can help to exit ESG compliance mode and enter an innovative mindset that helps society move forward.
3. I asked Alex whether he is more or less optimistic about businesses solving important problems than he was four years ago. Delightfully, he is MORE optimistic, which I find so encouraging.

If you like the pod, I can only recommend diving more deeply into Alex’s work, which is very nicely made accessible on his homepage: https://alexedmans.com