Jean-Michel Lalieu: What was the trigger that pushed you to work in the field of sustainable finance?

Kaspar Wansleben: I started my career in international organisations, and I found that things were moving very slowly in this world. I had the chance to see closely the work of Jacques Attali, at his NGO Planet Finance [now called Positive Planet]. There were a lot of efforts made to combine the not-for-profit world with the business world. An approach that formed the philosophy when the Luxembourg Microfinance and Development Fund was launched.

What are you convinced about when it comes to sustainable finance?

Sustainable finance is a question of balancing nature, the social and the economic. The effort to maximise one of the three normally harms another. Finance, as a facilitator, must be very careful to help find this balance, if it is to be sustainable.

What is your preferred work theme, or your favorite “fight” to take on?

Patience, even if I am often impatient to see things progress. What we do in terms of social inclusion through microfinance or the fight against deforestation requires a lot of patience and a long-term perspective.

Who is someone that inspires you every day?

Coming from microfinance, it is impressive to see how a personality like Muhammad Yunus has been able to advance an entire sector on a global level. But my daily inspiration comes much more from the small farmers and artisans with whom we work. Their resilience to challenges is incredible.

What “sustainable” investment would you recommend?

As investment advice is a discipline regulated by [Luxembourg’s financial regulator] the CSSF, I limit myself to pointing to the efforts made for many years by local players to finance an ecological and inclusive Luxembourg economy.

Originally reported for Paperjam and translated for Delano