On Friday, students, policy experts and industry professionals in finance and sustainability gathered on campus for the annual Future of Sustainable Investing Conference, a student-run event focused on the growing role of finance in addressing environmental challenges.
FSIcon, the penultimate event of Brown’s first-ever Climate Week, was entirely student-run and hosted in the Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship. Now in its seventh year, the conference features a “group of students who are really passionate about bringing sustainability and sustainable investing into the general student body,” said Mahi Agarwal ’27, an FSIcon strategy team lead.
How FSIcon comes together
FSIcon co-president Fergus Bolton ’26 said the event aims to spark conversation about emerging trends in sustainable finance while connecting students with professionals working in the field.
“I really want students to just walk away thinking about what the future of sustainable investing is,” Bolton said.
Planning for the conference began in early fall and involved 41 undergraduate students, said corporate relations team member Luca Gwathmey ’28. Students can choose to work on teams responsible for logistics, speakers, marketing and sponsorship.
Gwathmey began reaching out to organizations in September, when sponsors begin to “set their budgets for Q1 of the following year,” to secure funding for the event, he told The Herald. Sponsors for this year’s conference included Brown institutions, like the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, and non-Brown entities, like Xpansiv, a market infrastructure provider for the global energy transition.
According to Agarwal, who works on expansion and outreach, FSIcon hopes to continue enlarging the scope of the conference by bringing more students from other colleges to the conference, as well as by increasing student engagement at Brown.
What FSIcon looks like
At the event on Friday, panelists discussed topics ranging from climate policy to global energy markets. Some events focused on sustainable ways to power the growing artificial intelligence ecosystem, while other panels explored how venture capital is related to climate finance.
One discussion, titled “Energy in Geopolitics,” examined how energy policy is shaping international conflict and economic competition.
The panel explored how recent federal policies have reshaped the energy landscape in the United States and abroad. Speakers discussed the Trump administration’s second-term energy agenda, including its aggressive foreign policy in oil-producing states.
Professor of Political Science and International and Public Affairs Jeff Colgan noted that oil-producing states are rare, making up just “20% of the world’s countries.” But “five out of seven states (chosen) as targets for US military action” are major oil producers, Colgan said.
“That is incredibly unlikely to happen by random chance,” said Colgan.
During the panel, Colgan said recent U.S. policy shifts reflect a broader political struggle over the country’s energy future. “We are doubling down on fossil fuels,” Colgan said. “We are recarbonizing our economy instead of decarbonizing our economy.”
Panelists also discussed how global competition over clean energy technologies is influencing economic strategy. “The energy transition is global, and it is driven by economics and physics,” said Christian Roselund, a policy analyst.
In the closing keynote, CEO at Xpansiv John Melby ’93 spoke about the different fields he explored throughout his career. He also discussed the evolution of environmental markets and the role of trust in that market.
After the keynote, FSIcon hosted a “Climate Careers Workshop” event and a “Coffee Chats” event, where attendees could sign up for ten-minute time intervals to speak with Melby and Robert Kronman, director of marketing of TriLinc Global.
What students took away
For many students, the conference offered a chance to explore unfamiliar topics and hear directly from experts.
Cameron Berry ’29 said many of the people he spoke to at the event have careers that he would be interested in pursuing — that was “one of the unique and really rewarding and interesting parts” of the event.
Chidi Olewuenyi ’26 said that before the conference, she was unfamiliar with the concept of sustainable investing.
She chose to attend because she felt “like it’d be a good space to learn what that means, especially as someone going into finance,” she said.
Olewuenyi added that conferences like FSIcon provide valuable opportunities to connect with potential employers. Attendees were able to submit their resumes through a system that allows organizers to share them with participating companies.
But the conference is designed to be more than a networking opportunity, Gwathmey said.
“I do think, and I hope, that students know that you can just come here and listen and learn,” he added.
Event attendee Tyler Tang ’28, who studies economics and modern culture and media, said he took the event as a chance to explore “what you might want to do in different sectors.”
For Tang, the conference became a way to see how other disciplines, like environmental science and international and public affairs, connect to industry “without actually having to take a class or declare.”
“It’s just good to hear from smart people in their field,” he said. “That’s kind of what Brown is about — hear from a lot of perspectives, learn new things.”
Angel Lopez is a senior staff writer covering Science and Research. He’s a first-year student from Tyler, Texas and planning to study neuroscience and literary arts. In his free time, you can find him playing ping pong, listening to music, or reading.
Miriam Davison is a Senior Staff Writer for University News covering Academics & Advising. She is a first-year from Los Angeles, CA and plans to study tentatively the realm of International & Public Affairs and English, though her interests span from linguistics to history to music. In her free time, she plays on one of Brown's ultimate frisbee teams and likes writing silly poems.
