Cary Krosinsky is a widely respected educator, leading author and advisor on sustainable finance whose ongoing teaching includes popular courses at Brown, Yale and NYU. His first book was published in 2008, Sustainable Finance, The Art of Long Term Performance with Nick Robins. His seventh and most recent book was on Modern China and the need for better relations with the West to solve societal challenges. He is also Co-Founder and Director of the Carbon Tracker Initiative and Real Impact Tracker, Editor of the Journal of Environmental Investing, and a member of the NY State Common Decarbonization Advisory Panel, appointed by Governor Cuomo and Comptroller DiNapoli.
Longterm risks are material today for public markets
When something goes seriously wrong on ESG (think the Deepwater Horizon oil spill or the United Airlines passenger dragging incident), it is not uncommon for publicly traded companies to lose 50% of their market cap. Long term ESG risks are pressing today and require management.
Long term risks for Private Equity are more nuanced
The question tends to be 1) what do owners (increasingly institutional investors) want in the long term and 2) are there ESG risks that will impact the value of the company over the hold period and beyond.
Metrics aren’t everything
In order to affect change, systems need to be influenced which involve corporations, investment, people, policy and innovation. We need to push on all of those levers at the same time to solve climate change.
Data isn’t usually forward looking
People first make decisions then use data to see if progress is being made. ESG data won’t necessarily tell us everything. It’s more backward looking than forward looking.