Necessity of coal phase-out ensures commercial opportunities: StanChart sustainability chief

BEFORE becoming the chief sustainability officer at Standard Chartered (StanChart), Marisa Drew experimented with new financial structures that could fund ocean conservation.

It wasn’t smooth sailing. She said in an interview with The Business Times: “Five years ago, people said oceans were uninvestable from a commercial return point of view. And that was a good challenge for me. I said, ‘Well, I’m going to prove them wrong’.

“We created landmark transactions, a landmark structure called a debt-for-nature swap, which was an experiment when we started. Now, it’s a thing.”