Can you talk about you or your company’s efforts relating to renewability, sustainability or other environmentally-friendly activities?

It would have been easiest to start with standard platitudes regarding COP targets or a quote from someone else about how we only have one planet and need to save it. Not to trivialise either, but I decided to instead reference a concept I learned in law school and learned to quantify in business school. A concept I think perfectly encapsulates a lot of the energy transition challenges we are facing is ‘the tragedy of the commons’, something ChatGPT can explain much better than I can in the limited number of words I have for this essay. Since being able to understand the challenges of sustainability through this lens, I’ve always thought about my role in remedying the ‘tragedy’ both as an individual and as a professional in an organisation. This has meant a personal commitment to working within companies acting as part of the solution and not the problem. This has led me to reject cushy roles in large MNCs if their mission statement or revenue-generating activity didn’t make me think they were serious about their sustainability claims. Aquila Capital walks the walk from every perspective – they not only measure sustainability and invest strictly in essential assets, but they constantly progress internal and CSR drives that aim to do this both in macro and micro ways.

In Asia, we are a part of Aquila Clean Energy and concentrate only on renewable energy projects. Of course, this does not automatically guarantee a focus on ESG practices in every facet of the organisation. Not every renewable energy project has a sustainable green supply chain, creates positive social change for the community around it or is governed by the correct AML, ABC and KYC standards needed to justify the ‘G’ in ESG. At Aquila, our legal team works with top-down requirements to ensure we are operating with all of these constituents. With my previous experience at sustainable infrastructure companies and the guidance of the senior leadership team here, this fits in with what I have been striving to do – pursue innovation, sustainability and proper governance to reduce the size and impact of this ‘tragedy’.