Interdisciplinarity is the prerequisite boundary condition for ESG as risk is a map where the valency of weighted averages at each space-time node is different. The single-issue specialist would not be able to grasp the risk associated with impact investing and transition finance. Teams of engineers, nature scientists and lawyers need to work with economists and corporate finance professionals to build products that finance change. The frontiers are spilling over with possibilities to innovate.

Tech is a perennial magnet for top talent as the opportunities for growth are present. ESG is getting there, but the fluid skills terrain will leave much to be asked for. Carbon is about reporting, also about trading and about technology. Carbon is vital as it is about survival and not about being an element on the periodic table taught in middle school.

Carbon will be culture soon. When you buy a product, one asks about the monetary price. The carbon impact will be part of that pricing strategy soon as the environmental and social cost.

The unseen spaces of migration infrastructure which fall through the literature gaps in the sending countries are mundane spaces such as photo studios and travel agencies who even in the era of the digital play a role as visa applications is hard copy.

The elderly uncle at the photo studio tucked away in the by lanes of a residential area was an encyclopedia of visa related information related to photo sizes.

He rattled off requirements for South Africa, Vietnam, and Turkey in a breath.

Similarly, the travel agent is a guide through the paperwork maze.

These are fixed nodes of transnational networks of circulation which are hidden from the theory gaze

Climate Action (as Change is underway) is a capital allocation problem. Capital access for transition is an imperative as other variables such as talent and technology gravitate towards wicked problems when resources are abundant.

ESG is a responsible capitalism issue, but climate action with its planetary risk implications is the ‘society as a whole’ problem to tackle at multiple scales.

#society #climateaction #esgreporting

The ushering in an era of open data in the ESG governance sphere brings out a radical transparency and trust among the investor community. The emergent risks of transnational climate litigation such as the shell case in Nigeria or modern slavery triggers in SE Asia, good reporting is beyond compliance as it is risk mitigation towards black swan activist action that can short a stock and collapse shareholder value.

Why should I do ESG reporting should not even be a question, rather what are my risks is a better frame to look at ESG.

#compliance#community#climatechange

The Gig Economy is a fancy term for informal economy labor without a social safety net, rolling back strides in social protection. Internet serfdom should not be masked.

We are all gig workers.

Sustainability or ESG is either the end or the means to an end. ESG needs to be viewed as a web of risks with each node as varied gradients. ESG is about risk related to investor value capture. Sustainability is a normative and fuzzy. The ends need to be defined, as sustainability can be an opening into restoration, rejuvenation, and resilience.

Climate resilience is a real goal, and everything converges around it.

#sustainability

Bengali Christians have been celebrating the ‘Boro Din’ through payesh and plum cake, and mangshor bhat in the afternoon in an act of creolization forever. The term ‘Boro Din’ or Big Day denotes a monumental event in the calendar as does Selamat Hari Natal for Christians in the Nusantara. ‘Hari’ again denotes the big day in Bahasa Indonesia, which is also deployed for Eid.

Christmas for Copts and Levantine Arabs is Eid as well.

Cultures share common traits, which render humanity richer.

From Payesh to Muklabia to Kueh, do soak in the Joy.

The SEBI mapping of green bonds akin to Article 8 of the EU Taxonomy is the part of inter-operability of sustainability disclosure standards. The local and the global weave into a seamless tapestry of regulatory topologies. The Indian ‘Atma-Nirbhar’ variant of ESG Reporting mandated by SEBI, the Business Responsibility & Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) is mapped to CDP, GRI, TCFD and SASB frameworks.

And even better it is mandatory for the top thousand publicly listed firms on the National Stock Exchange (NSE). This in line with mandatory sustainability disclosures at the SGX and stringent measures by the MAS in Singapore. The terrain of global capital is truly ‘flat’, Thomas Friedman would be proud.

#sustainability#singapore#india#brsr#esgreporting#eutaxonomy#business

Dreams linger

They ember

Till the next dream

They flare again

As themselves are the fire

#spokenword

Happy International Migrants Day!

One of the few days in the calendar which is of significant meaning to me. Mobility is a frame of life, as aspiration and a will to do better for our families. On a personal note, I work with organizations who care for the the transnational subaltern at the scale of the homeland and the host land.

As a second-generation Gulf kid, migration is more than theory for the h index. Lived experience trumps the discourse on remittances.

From the girmitiya to the partition impacted to the tech folks on the H1B, precarity frames the migration journey.