Hi everyone, my name is William Matthews, and I am an HBA 1 student here at Ivey. I am from Toronto and looking to pursue a career in finance and am becoming increasingly interested in seeing how sustainability intercorrelates with such. Prior to Ivey, I was a part of Western’s BMOS program with a specialization in finance. At Western, I am also a part of the Ivey Sales & Trading Club and will be one of two upcoming co-presidents as well as a member of Western’s Varsity Men’s Rugby Team, formerly the assistant captain. 

What is your personal definition of sustainability? 

Personally, I believe that sustainability revolves around doing better for the planet than the harm you cause. I believe that everyone should work towards having a positive net impact on the earth and with that, we would all leave the earth in a better place than how we found it. This also would therefor ensure that the following generations would have access to the same resources, if not better, than we do today. 

What role do you see sustainability playing in your professional career?

As stated above, as of now I see myself pursing a career in finance, and specifically in a trading-based role (sales & trading, hedge fund, etc.). While this has not typically been an industry where sustainability was at the forefront of many, markets are becoming more and more focused on such because companies are beginning to care more about such. Carbon credit trading is exploding in popularity and green bonds are becoming a standardized product of issuance in U.S. markets. With this being the case, obviously knowing and learning as much as possible about sustainability and its business applications is growing in importance. For example, understanding why and when companies look to issue green bonds and how likely the associated step ups are to occur is an obvious source of speculation and has clear transferability to the finance industry. It is also important to note that this is our current understanding of sustainability. With this space continuously changing, who knows what this will look like in the future. However, developing a strong platform will never hurt.

What sustainability projects have you been engaged in?

At the project level, I have not been a part of as many as I would like to be. While the applications of sustainability are ever growing, in the past I have struggled to find opportunities to that seem to be meaningful. For example, while I have participated in one off opportunities, such as tree planting, I am yet to find a consistent activity where I can tangibly see the impact I may have. However, this does not mean that I am not interested in looking for such. Specifically, I am really interested in how sustainability will impact economic development and how our current thought process with change with time, and am looking to get involved. Whether that be through learning more about resource efficiencies or how urban planning will change and the corresponding decisions that will have to be made as a result, all these factors stem from sustainability and from sustainable living. Furthermore, I also want to be a part of something that gauges how natural resources are being used, what resources we may shift towards, and how such impacts markets. For example, learning about the applications of lithium ion versus lithium iron and how such effects metals & mining is really interesting to me. 

Please list any sustainability-related interests you want to explore during the certificate. 

If given the opportunity, I would want to be paired with somebody who is in the finance industry and is actively thinking about how these changes affect markets. I am really hoping to learn more about the business applications of sustainability rather than just the environmental aspects of sustainability which we have solely been taught about so far.