When teenaged environmental activist Greta Thunberg addressed members of the United Nations Climate Action Committee last fall, she chided them for touting “fairy tales of eternal economic growth.” Her colourful language undoubtedly captured the way many people regard the tension between the profit-seeking motives of the business community and the much broader ambitions of those who would rein in humanity’s damage to the natural world. It might seem an impossible task to resolve the many conflicts that separate these perspectives, but an initiative at Queen’s University aims to do just that.

The Institute for Sustainable Finance, which launched in November 2019, is based at Queen’s Smith School of Business. The Institute serves as the linchpin for the Canadian Sustainable Finance Network, which includes over 65 academic researchers and educators from 22 universities across the country, all dedicated to exploring how the many different ways in which we spend money might be adapted to reflect the principles of sustainability.

Continue the story on the Research@Queen’s website.