Event Description

Launch of Webinar Series Big Questions Little Time - Webinars on Sustainable Development  - 24/6/2021 14.00-15.00 (CET)

Come and join CBS Sustainability and Center for Business and Development Studies for the launch of the new webinar series Big Questions Little Time - Webinars on Sustainable Development.


“Is ESG Investment actually creating positive impact?” featuring Mikkel Larsen, DBS

Mikkel Larsen, Group Chief Sustainability Officer of DBS and a committee member of Global Compact Network Singapore’s Management Committee, will launch the webinar series with a session on ESG Investment. 

ESG investing boomed in popularity in recent years, with many ESG-linked stocks and indices outperformed or less impacted as compared to the wider market. Besides financial outperformance, ESG investing can also lead to a better and kinder future for humanity, and a cleaner and more balanced natural environment, depending on context, intention, and perceived outcomes. ESG investments can influence change through meaningful capital allocation to address some of our critical global challenges: climate change, public health and sanitation ( E), to employee well-being, income inequality and diversity (S), and corporate regulation (G), to name a few.
Despite all these, more evidence is still required to quantify real impact through ESG investments, as this can be shaped by the robustness of financial instruments and the maturity of ESG investing landscape.

About Mikkel Larsen:
Mikkel Larsen is Group Chief Sustainability Officer of DBS and a committee member of Global Compact Network Singapore’s Management Committee. Mikkel chairs the DBS Sustainability Council, which comprises senior leaders across business and support units and is responsible for developing DBS’ overarching sustainability framework, setting key performance indicators and targets in consultation with the relevant stakeholders, and driving sustainability initiatives across the bank. He is presently a member of or represents DBS in numerous international and local councils or committees. These include: the Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets, GRI Stakeholder Council, United for Wildlife Financial Taskforce, World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), Green Finance Working Group [Workstream Chair] under the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)’s Financial Centre Advisory Panel (FCAP), Singapore’s Environment and Resources Standards Committee (ERSC) and the Global Compact Network Singapore (GCNS). Prior to joining DBS, Mikkel was the Chief Financial Officer for Asia Pacific in UBS from 2009 to 2012 covering Investment Bank, Wealth Management and Asset Management. He was previously the Asia Pacific Head of Accounting Policy and location controller for Hong Kong at UBS. Mikkel has also worked in Citigroup in London and KPMG in London and Denmark. Mikkel is an adjunct professor at the Copenhagen Business School (CBS), and has an MBA from London Business School, graduate education from Harvard University, a master’s in Sustainability Leadership from Cambridge University, as well as master’s and bachelor’s degrees in Economics from CBS in his native country Denmark where he also holds his CPA.


About the webinar series:
This idea behind this webinar series is to bring in international thought leaders, representing a wide variety of fields and disciplines. Following the same structure for each seminar, we wish to critically explore if, how, and under which conditions any given approach can bring about change and contribute to sustainable development. 

The title of this webinar series refers not only to the inherent urgency for us to find possible solutions to the societal challenges we are facing, but also the 60 minute time frame for each session. 

On this site, you can find the audio and video podcasts of the sessions. If you wish to stay in the loop and attend the live sessions, please sign up for the monthly CBS Sustainability newsletter or contact the centre manager of both centres, Sarah Netter.