SYNOPSIS

This talk will provide an overall understanding of the financing of sustainability and ESG implementation for companies. In particular, it will focus on the issues related to the ‘E’ of the ESG framework for companies. These include renewable energy and energy efficiency, GHGs emission, waste management and elements of the circular economy. It specifically emphasizes the availability of technological and management solutions that can be obtained through various green financing that is available in the market, including green incentives given by the government.


BIODATA OF SPEAKER

Dr. Hari Ramalu Ragavan has 25 years of experience in sustainability management and policy in Malaysia and Asia Pacific. He worked at University Malaya, Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers, Centre for Environmental Technologies (CETEC), and served the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for Malaysia, Singapore & Brunei Darussalam as Programme Manager from 2004 till 2015. At UNDP he worked in the sustainable development cluster and had developed, managed and monitored/evaluated at least 15 projects worth USD40 million.

Dr Hari is currently the Principal Consultant at AKAR ASIA Consulting. He has advised UNDP, World Bank, USAID, UNIDO, UNEP and ADB in Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea, Cambodia, Philippines, Nepal, Myanmar, Timor Leste and Vietnam as well as Malaysia in the areas of climate change and nature ecosystems management, and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) involving communities, private sector and local governments. He also provides advisory services to the private sector on corporate sustainability, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) framework and focus areas. He is a Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF) certified, Trainer and conducts various trainings on Sustainable Consumption and Production (SDG12) and ESG. He is a Certified Expert in Sustainable Finance (CESFi) (Frankfurt School).

He is a Board Member of Asia Pacific Roundtable for Sustainable Consumption and Production, and an Exco member of the Environmental Management and Research Association of Malaysia, and a Committee Member of the Malaysian Evaluation Society. He is a member of the Industry Expert Committee (IEC) - Sustainability under Human Resource Development Corp (HRD Corp) and a member of the Department of Standards’ Technical Committee; ISO/TC 207/SC 4 - Environmental performance evaluation.