Sustainability Now

AI will disrupt companies across almost every sector, but not equally. We look at how much of a company’s workforce cost AI could automate, what makes a business model resilient to it, and whether markets have already priced in the difference.Host: Gabriela de la Serna, MSCI R&DGuest: Liz Houston, MSCI R&D

Climate adaptation is already a trillion-dollar market, and it's set to keep growing — but most companies aren't labelling it as one. We map where the real opportunity sits, how to tell durable demand from a good story, and why backing adaptation doesn't mean giving up on the energy transition.Host: Bentley Kaplan, MSCI R&DGuest: Mathew Lee, MSCI R&D

AT&T filed many weather-related 8-Ks before it finally named hurricanes as a business risk in its annual report. It isn't an outlier: more than 80% of companies acknowledge physical climate risk is material, but fewer than a third lay out the details of what that means for their business. With a record-breaking El Niño set to peak in December, host Mike Disabato talks with MSCI's Jasmina Buresch about why it takes a second or third hit before companies disclose anything specific, how to tell a critical facility from an office everyone could just work remotely from, and why investors shouldn't wait for company disclosure to catch up to the underlying exposure.Episode reading: The Price of Not KnowingHost: Mike Disabato, MSCI Sustainability & ClimateGuest: Jasmina Buresch, MSCI Sustainability & Climate

Founders are increasingly keeping outsized voting control when companies like SpaceX go public. In this episode, we explore how this growing trend, known as control skew, has lined up with performance across a decade of major US IPOs.Host: Gabriela de la Serna, MSCI R&DGuest: Jonathan Ponder, MSCI R&D

An AI agent can pull emissions data in seconds. But can it tell you whether two companies’ numbers actually mean the same thing? We look at the risks hiding behind AI’s speed and precision.Host: Bentley Kaplan, MSCI R&DGuest: Tanguy Sene, MSCI R&D

This is the episode four of four we did in partnership with Finance Montreal, recording panelists at their Sustainable Finance Summit. And, fittingly, this last one is on AI.In this episode, Rheia Khalaf, who leads financial sector collaborations at Mila - Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute, discusses what she sees when a large, traditional company - the kind that turns like a tanker - decides to bring AI into its systems. She explains why the gap is rarely the technology itself but the governance that can't keep pace with it, from the concentration risk of leaning on a handful of major providers to the "shadow AI" and confidentiality gaps that open up when everyone is vibe coding. She also weighs the other side of the ledger - drug discovery, better climate prediction - against the real environmental cost of the data centers, and the water, energy and materials, that power it all.You'll also hear from Harlan Tufford of MSCI Sustainability & Climate, on a new model he and his colleagues are building to assess which industries AI is most likely to disrupt - and support. He explores the tension between efficiency gains and job loss, why a figure like sixty percent of labor being automatable is a hypothetical maximum rather than a forecast, and how a company's economic moat decides whether the benefits of automation flow to the company, its competitors, or its customers. He also gets into what gets priced in first - the chatbots automating knowledge work, or the robots that come after.Enjoy!!Host: Mike Disabato, MSCI Sustainability & ClimateGuests: Rheia Khalaf, Mila – Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute; Harlan Tufford, MSCI Sustainability & Climate

This is the third of four episodes we did in partnership with Finance Montreal, recording panelists at their Sustainable Finance Summit.In this episode, Matthew Lawton, Head of Impact Fixed Income at T. Rowe Price, discusses what makes a blue economy bond credible and impactful, from the alignment of the issuer to the credibility of the proceeds. He explores why emerging markets are leading the global north on blue finance, where the biggest growth is likely to come from - desalination, sustainable shipping and clean drinking water - and how anchoring smaller deals can crowd in capital and scale the market.You'll also hear from Rik Logtenberg, director of CanAdapt and a city councilmember of Nelson City, on what repeated climate disasters do to a community and why you can't simply build back the same. He also discusses the coordination problem at the heart of adaptation - the workforce, materials, funding and policy that all have to come together at once - and why municipalities carry the responsibility for resilience without the authority to deliver it.Enjoy!!Host: Mike Disabato, MSCI Sustainability & ClimateGuests: Matthew Lawton, T. Rowe Price; Rik Logtenberg, CanAdaptEpisode ReadingT. Rowe Price: The Blue EconomyClimate Risk Institute

This is the second of four episodes we did in partnership with Finance Montreal, recording panelists at their Sustainable Finance Summit.In this episode, Eric Usher, head of the UN Environmental Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), discusses why banks and insurers continue to make progress on their climate commitments despite recent headlines. He explores the global pace of the electric-vehicle transition, the business case for sustainable finance and why leading banks can benefit from lower funding costs. You’ll also hear from Brian Kernohan, chief sustainability officer at Manulife Investment Management, on why social issues, including housing affordability, income inequality and financial inclusion, deserve greater attention alongside carbon and nature. He also discusses the Taskforce on Inequality and Social-related Financial Disclosures (TISFD) and its potential to make social impacts more measurable for investors.Enjoy!!Host: Mike DisabatoGuests: Eric Usher, UNEP FI; Brian Kernohan, Manulife IMEpisode Reading:UN Environmental Programme Finance InitiativeTaskforce on Inequality and Social-related Financial Disclosures | TISFD Global Initiative

John E. Morton, Head of Nature Finance at WWF, works to put biodiversity into investment decisions. Dr. Sarah Kapnick, climate scientist and JPMorgan climate advisor, focuses on physical climate risks to water, soil, and agriculture. They discuss rising water scarcity and Colorado River negotiations. They cover fertilizer shocks, soil health, supply-chain blind spots, and making nature as investable as climate.

When conflict disrupted gas exports through the Strait of Hormuz earlier this year, attention focused on gas prices and shipping lanes. But the shock travelled further — quietly rippling through fertilizer markets, where some producers were hit far harder than others, revealing how location-based risk can emerge deep within a supply chain.Host: Gabriela de la Serna, MSCI Sustainability & ClimateGuest: Cole Martin, MSCI Sustainability & Climate