Guiding investments into the low-carbon and circular transition

Q: What are some of the key projects in your early career and how it has shaped your expertise your career today?

CQ: A milestone project in my early career was advising a major public service broadcaster in London on their sustainability strategy, in which I was involved in conducting workshops to assess their sustainability goals and needs with key stakeholders and integrating sustainability into their energy and facility management systems. Another memorable experience from my time in London, during the Bird Flu outbreaks and before the Covid-19 global pandemic hit, was advising a global financial institution on pandemic risk across their UK operations, where I gained valuable insight into corporate risk management.

After relocating to Singapore, I had stints as an in-house Energy and Sustainability Manager for the APAC region of a leading Facilities Management company and in Management Consulting, before joining Ramboll.

In recent years, my focus has shifted to supporting clients by integrating sustainability commitments and criteria into their investment decisions, as well as identifying sustainability risks that may influence their investment decisions. Over the course of my career so far, I’ve been lucky enough to have worked across a wide range of infrastructure development projects, from data centres, power plants, petrochemical plants, landfills and mines, to hotels, parks, a university, an indoor farm, and even a roller-coaster!

Q: In your opinion, what are the most significant challenges your clients face today in decarbonising their portfolios?

CQ: Today, capital is increasingly being directed to impact investing, particularly in renewable energy developments and projects across the energy transition value chain. We investigate if these impact investments can be considered strong investments from an ESG standpoint whilst highlighting specific issues for investors representing potential material risks such as climate, biodiversity, or human rights aspects.

My team and I provide strategic and independent science-based advice to developers, financial institutions and their clients to manage risks, assess impacts, capture opportunities and future-proof investment decisions. Where necessary, we draw on our colleagues in sustainability consulting, nature-based solutions, engineering and change support to help companies operationalise sustainability and gain competitive advantages from the transformation to a low-carbon and circular economy.

Q: Can you share a project that you found particularly impactful or rewarding?

CQ: Projects such as Environmental and Social Due Diligence (ESDD) and Environmental and Social Monitoring which are aligned with international standards such as the Equator Principles, the IFC Performance Standards and the Asian Development Bank's Environmental and Social Safeguards are particularly impactful. Recently, we advised on Environmental and Social aspects of Singapore's first bioenergy plant with Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) and will continue our role as the lender's independent advisor to monitor performance during the construction and operational phases. The project utilises locally sourced waste wood to generate electricity and aims to ‘upcycle’ or ‘valorise’ materials such as wood ash byproducts into bio-fertilisers for horticultural and landscape applications and sand aggregates for civil works. Such project experiences are meaningful as our contribution and support to our clients helps address pressing global challenges and demonstrates our commitment to sustainable change across industries and regions.

Additionally, we assist with post-investment value-creation programmes and have supported private equity and private credit firms on sustainability-linked investments. One notable project is our work on sustainable rubber for an Indonesian firm since 2020, following its receipt of SE Asia's first corporate sustainability bond. It has been rewarding through our annual reviews to see the company’s progress on the journey towards compliance with international standards across challenging aspects such as wildlife conservation, land acquisition, worker welfare and supply chain across a large number of smallholder farmers.

The pace of increasing regulation over recent years, such as the EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), which mandates that financial market participants disclose ESG information, has further anticipated the ability to navigate the evolving regulatory landscape for financial and environmental sectors.

We recently advised a global asset manager on its ESG policies and tested the policies on some of its Asia-focus funds. The client emphasised the need for these policies to improve transparency for sustainable investment products, prevent greenwashing and provide investors with accurate information about their investment choices.

Q: Lastly, what do you enjoy most working at Ramboll?

CQ: I love the environment and simply being outdoors! I particularly enjoyed our team’s work on many of Singapore’s nature parks, such as Thomson Nature Park, Rifle Range Nature Park, Mandai Bird Paradise and the upcoming Bukit Batok Nature Corridor and Clementi Nature Trail. It’s rewarding to know that my work contributes to conserving the biodiversity that I love.

With the sustainable finance projects at Ramboll I’ve been involved in, I had the opportunities to visit and learn more about many off-the-beaten-track places in Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia, deepening my understanding of this diverse region and satisfying my inner travel bug.

Above all, what I love most is that I can share the meaningful work we do with my two children, whether it’s focused on renewables and the energy transition, climate resilience, wildlife conservation or Indigenous peoples and social impact.