The World of Climate Investing with Alsey Davidson
March 10, 2023
The Cleantech Summit advocates for the essential collaboration between the finance world and the environmental movement. We welcome professionals to the Summit like Asley Davidson, a professional at BlackRock, who works at the intersection of finance and decarbonization.
Davidson came into college knowing that her goal was to work in the environmental field. It was while at UNC-Chapel Hill that she saw the value of approaching environmentalism through the lens of business, inspiring her to also attend the Kenan-Flagler Business school for a degree in business as well as a degree in Environmental Studies. Her studies allowed her to develop valuable skills helping her in her first role at NextEra, where she was a project manager, directing their renewables portfolio in Colorado for wind, solar, and battery storage. Now at BlackRock, Davidson effects major change via her role as an associate on the Climate Infrastructure Investment Team. In this role, Davidson has the power to evaluate investments and conduct due diligence to determine which renewable projects the company should fund.
Not only has green finance been successful–the Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment found that over the last two years, private equity and venture capital ESG assets under management more than doubled to $283 billion with 565 funds–but many professionals like Davidson also see it as necessary for economic growth. “I think incorporating climate risk into investment decisions now is not only the responsible thing to do from an ESG perspective, but it’s also the way to actually generate alpha in the long term and meet our fiduciary duty to clients.”
According to Davidson, the environmental finance world greatly encourages newcomers. “Whether you’re involved in the operations side, the technical engineering side, or the financial side, it’s never too late to dive in now”. She explains this further in her blog post “Advice from my HBS Career Journey in Renewable Energy” available on the Harvard Business School website. Davidson states that this industry is rapidly growing and as it does, it will continue to attract many. “It’s probably the number one field that we need talent to flock to now in order to achieve net zero.”
Asley will be a panelist at the UNC Cleantech Summit on March 27-28 2023. Come by to meet her and other inspiring professionals!
About the Author
This article was written by Claire Stewart, a UNC-Chapel Hill sophomore studying Mathematics and Environmental Science on the Quantitative Energy Systems Track. She was introduced to the Cleantech Summit after attending in 2022 and has been passionate about the cause ever since.