The Finance for the Future Awards are organised by ICAEW (the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales) and A4S, along with their partner Deloitte, and are now in their seventh year.
The Global Sustainability Institute, which was established by Anglia Ruskin University in 2011, has been shortlisted for the Driving Change Through Education, Training and Academia award.
The awards, which recognise the role of finance in helping to promote sustainability issues and solutions, will be announced at a ceremony in London on Tuesday, 16 October.
Professor Aled Jones, who has been Director of the GSI since it was established, led the research which has looked at how the public sector, through regulation and finance, has been able to catalyse private sector investments in climate change solutions in the developing world.
Another strand has focused on understanding the risks associated with climate change and global resource constraints on infrastructure investments. As part of this, the GSI wrote a seminal report for the Institute & Faculty of Actuaries that explored long term implications of climate change and resource limits.
Professor Jones said: “Using case studies, interviews, scenarios and modelling to explore the opportunities and risks associated with climate change and resource scarcity for the finance sector the GSI, through a series of projects and outputs, has been able to have real tangible impact and demonstrate that action is needed now and not in a few years’ or decades’ time if we are going to respond to these challenges effectively.”
Helen Slinger, CFO Leadership Network Director at A4S, said: “Embedding social and environmental issues within key decisions can improve performance. The finalists of these Awards demonstrate why all finance leaders should be considering these issues; for the future of the planet and society, but also their organisations.”