Green in the desert

I’ve lived on-and-off in the UAE for a few years. Our family’s always maintained a lawn with some of the usual flora that seems to be standard for this part of the world. Just to remind us of Singapore’s awesome green ecosystem.

Late last year, partly to heal from a rather unpleasant corporate experience, I decided to focus my mind on combining what I know best – financial services and fintech with what I love best – nature. I centered around the target of achieving net-zero goals in 2050. There is really no bigger objective for us as a species. There are many paths to achieve this objective but central to this is moving investment away from business models that destroy, to business models that preserve and create. I have no illusions that this will be an extremely challenging task. There are immensely powerful and astoundingly wealthy vested interests in environmentally destructive business models.

In a parallel experience, my wife and I decided to make our first attempts at sustainable living in the UAE. So instead of watering a lawn and random flowers, we decided to try to grow plants that nurture. We were both lucky to have had childhood experiences that included kitchen gardens and fruit trees, so the transition was a bit cumbersome but not difficult. A change of mindset. The biggest challenge was the naysayers who very kindly informed us that “nothing grows in the desert”.

At the Singapore Fintech Festival in November I connected up with three awesome people – Koen, Mona and Tracy. From totally different corners of the world. And we all had very similar ideas and ways of working. We are collaborating on understanding the ESG, Sustainability and net-zero space much better. Drawing on industry, academia and NGOs to build a body of knowledge that we hope will be vastly superior to what we could have achieved as individuals.

In the meanwhile, our desert garden is blooming. That’s an actual picture. Our tiny, tiny patch of green is visited by sunbirds, bulbuls, a couple of copper-bronze beautiful reticent reptiles, bumble bees, mynahs, the occasional hoopoe and our neighbour’s cat. All of which provide much amusement to our faithful retriever as she sits looking out from the French window. We’ve harvested cherry tomatoes, eggplant, aloe vera, rucola, spinach, coriander, fenugreek and okra. We’re eagerly awaiting the arrival of cauliflower, watermelons, papaya and pumpkins. Somewhere in a little corner of Dubai, we are working toward the net-zero objective and doing ourselves some good in the process.

I am looking forward to parallels in my chosen area of business focus.

I am a Founding Partner at BridgeDFS, a bespoke digital financial services advisory firm (www.bridgeto.us). Views expressed are my own. I can be contacted at sanjiv@bridgeto.us.