The Blog
The Engagement Appeal x David Ko: The Philosophy of Sustainable Investment
The meeting point of art and commerce is ever-changing and hard to define. What place does art have in the world of finance? How can young, savvy individuals learn to secure their footing in the world of work through smart investment? What advice do successful entrepreneurs have for the youth of today about finance, culture, and belief in the self? These are all questions ‘Art and the City’ seeks to answer, by interviewing some of the brightest and boldest minds in both the art world and the city.
In this week’s episode, we interview David Ko, former Oxford physics lecturer turned climate change warrior, and author of ‘The Unsustainable Truth’. He is co-founder of Rethinking Choices, a platform that promotes sustainable practice in business and community-led work. He is also chairman at Etna Research, and has years of experience in the development of sustainable policy.
David started as a research fellow in physics, a job that took him from Tokyo to Oxford and back again, before he decided to engage more in the world of finance in order to pay his bills. He stayed in investment for over thirty years, while his concerns about the state of the planet and the finance industry’s relationship with sustainability grew and grew.
Eventually, David and his colleagues began to research better ESG markers, developing their awareness of sustainable business practise so that they could communicate more effectively with investors about how to take better care of their money. His key topic of research: how, as a society, do we know when we are doing too much?
David’s research culminated in the publication of his book ‘The Unsustainable Truth’. The process of writing it took him full-circle, back to his physics lecturing days, wondering about how people can be empowered by knowledge and philosophical thinking.
To listen to the episode in full please head to Spotify.
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