Mikail Durrani

Sustainability first grabbed my attention in high school when I was studying various environmental phenomena caused by climate change. Perhaps, I was overly optimistic but reducing carbon emissions seemed as an obvious solution. Carbon became synonymous with sustainable. As I progressed with my studies, my understanding of the climate crisis became more and more complex with environmental, societal and economical aspects coming together.

 

New aspects like biodiversity or industry decarbonization kept pushing the complexity and the importance of data. Incorporating sustainability principles will complement financial models to reward firms taking steps to quantify and improve their impact in local communities. Rewards may be handed by the markets but also governments. Being located deep in the heart of Western Europe, Switzerland could play a pivotal role as an early adopter of the EU's progressive green standards and a having significant economic ties with emerging and frontier markets. 

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As an undergraduate student, I realized a few things. Sustainability is a very important aspect in the finance industry but students lack adequate access to current private and public sector developments in environmental sustainability. There are very few first opportunities in sustainability orientated positions in Geneva. After participating at a sustainable finance hackathon and volunteering at the Building Bridges week, I was determined to create a forum to gather, organize and refine students' and young professionals' skills to mold them into sustainability professionals. 

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After completing my undergraduate degree, I'm pursuing a master's degree in Financial Engineering to be equipped with the necessary mathematical skills to accomplish my wider goals. I'm quite interested in assessing firms risk exposure to climate risks and quantify their impact on biodiversity, water scarcity, and fragility as I see them as the new key issues following the net-zero agenda.