Business School student Atreya Dey awarded best PhD paper

The GRASFI Conference is sponsored by BNP Paribas and is one of the most prestigious sustainable finance research events. We are proud that Atreya’s achievements have been recognised on this global platform.

Atreya’s paper, ‘Biodiversity Loss, Firm Operations, and Corporate Disclosure’, examined whether financial markets account for the biodiversity footprints of traded firms, and explored the reasons why they may or may not do so. Atreya showed that firms’ facilities increased toxic pollutants in their environments, leading to declines in local animal populations. However, he found that markets assigned no additional risk to firms responsible for this biodiversity loss. Initial evidence suggested that one reason for this lack of pricing may be firms’ under disclosure of their footprints in voluntary reports.

It’s an honour to have my work on biodiversity loss and firm operations recognised by the GRASFI community. Although still in progress, this research seeks to better understand a key driver of biodiversity loss at a time when markets are grappling with how to measure and incorporate these issues.

Atreya’s PhD fellowship was sponsored by Baillie Gifford, underscoring the value and success that this collaboration has brought. As a School we are immensely proud that this partnership continues to foster ground-breaking climate finance research.