About Us
About ESG Nordic Lab
The field of ESG is both a quickly expanding space of experimentation as well as a space where consternation is growing. This is proof of that ESG as a concept or lens is becoming institutionalised – though many will already attest that it is an institution in its own right. This website and the work carried out by the Nordic ESG Lab is to contribute to this spirit of experimentation. Ultimately we wish to support, in a small fashion, the development of new ESG tools, new research agendas and adoption and application of such tools within the business and financial worlds. Overall, the Nordic ESG Lab is a forum where research, exploration, and dissemination of leading Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) trends is explored. We link practice with research on all topics relating to Social Responsible Investing and ESG.
About the editors
Dr. Kristjan Jespersen
Professor
Kristjan is an Associate Professor in Sustainable Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Copenhagen Business School (CBS). Kristjan Jespersen is an Associate Professor at the Copenhagen Business School (CBS). As a primary area of focus, he studies the growing development and management of Ecosystem Services in developing countries. Within the field, Kristjan focuses his attention on the institutional legitimacy of such initiatives and the overall compensation tools used to ensure compliance. He has a background in International Relations and Economics.
Since August 2018, Kristjan Jespersen has been the coordinator of the CBS Impact for Innovation Lab (CBS Sustainability, Copenhagen Business School). The unique focus of the Impact for Innovation Lab would be its emphasis on the behavioural and business dimensions in the sustainability discourse.
Eléonore Güntzer
Student Assistant
Eléonore is a student assistant at the department of Management, Society and Communication at the Copenhagen Business School (CBS). Her work focuses on analyzing biodiversity risk in financial decision-making.
She is also pursuing a Master’s degree in Business and Development Studies at CBS, where she studies business and entrepreneurship in emerging markets.
Kedar Uttam
PostDoc
As a postdoc at CBS, Kedar analyzes the integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in ocean financing and the role of institutional work in marine conservation finance.
Additionally, Kedar is actively engaged in developing business cases for the ocean economy and ESG curricula. He has a background in Environmental Engineering and PhD with specialization in Environmental Management and Assessment.
Katryn Pasaribu
PostDoc
Katryn is a postdoctoral researcher at Copenhagen Business School. Katryn received her Ph.D. in Natural Resource Economics from the University of Tennessee, her MS in Agricultural and Applied Economics from the University of Wyoming, and her BA in Economics from the University of Indonesia. Her research interests are Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, Sustainable Production, Rural Development, and Environmental Carrying Capacity. Currently, she is working on a Conservation Finance research project named “No Tree – No Future”.
Benja Stig Fagerland
Associate Professor, Author, International Commentator, Researcher and Keynote Speaker
Benja is an award-winning associate professor at the University of South-Eastern Norway, School of Business Department of Business, Strategy and Political Science. Here research area focuses on sustainable leadership and social sustainability/corporate diversity responsibility™. She is also the founder of SHEconomy® and the SHEconomy® Summits.
She has gained experienced from a broad range of industries, such as academia, the IT, The Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO) and publishing and has held roles as Marketing Director, Senior Executive Manager, Associate Partner, Chairman and Board member. She is also the co-author of SHEconomy – It´s your business, Fagbokforlaget and The Success point, Gyldendal Business (Schultz Forlag), as well as the coauthor to Nordic Council of Ministers yearbook. She is also the initiator and strategist behind NHO’s FEMALE FUTURE program (women on boards). She has received multiple awards for her work, namely she was listed in the European Institute for Gender Equalisation, as one of 12 ‘Women Inspiring Europe’.
Dr. Izabela Delabre
Professor
Izabela is a Lecturer at Birkbeck, University of London. Her research examines the political ecology of sustainability governance, focusing on private sector initiatives for addressing deforestation and biodiversity loss in global value chains, and the effectiveness and equity of mechanisms for conservation finance. Other areas of interest include the politics of sustainability transformations in food systems, and critical perspectives on the use of technologies in environmental governance. Before joining Birkbeck, Izabela was a Research Fellow at University of Sussex (2018-21) and prior to that she worked for the Business and Biodiversity Conservation Programme at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) (2016-18), leading research for ZSL’s SPOTT (Sustainability Policy Transparency Toolkit), a scorecard promoting transparency in high biodiversity risk supply chains. Izabela’s PhD drew upon a global political ecology approach to examine participatory social impact assessment practices in the context of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) in Indonesia and Malaysia.
Dr. Caleb Gallemore
Professor
Caleb holds a PhD in Geography from the Ohio State University and is an Associate Professor in the International Affairs Program at Lafayette College in the United States. His research interests include Transnational Networks, Global Land Use and Land Cover Change, Global Commodity Chains, the Anthropocene, telecoupling, environmental policy networks, and social theory.
François Gardin
Senior advisor and researcher, Environmental finance, data and innovation
François Gardin is currently acting as Senior Advisor to leading investors and international organisations in the field of environmental finance, economics and innovation. He is also a Doctoral researcher at VUB University/ BSOG in the center for Environment, Economy and Energy.
Prior he worked in the investment management industry for over 15 years, heading product development, ESG integration and research roles. He has also gained extensive experience in the field of international operations and risk management.