Francisco Echevarria: Viability of Long-Term Environment-Friendly Investment Funds

The Earth is currently passing through a delicate time in regards to sustainability. Despite a general feeling that something needs to be done and that humans should join the effort to fight this decay, it seems that international institutions are not taking a proper course of action to do so. Given this situation, another question arises—should we, as a people, simply wait until the situation gets better, or is there something that we can do to help solve our planet’s problems? 

Industrial Technology and Management graduate student Francisco Javier Gaminde Echevarria (MITO ’19) believes a possible solution is to carry out important, environmentally friendly projects that would proactively seek to improve the Earth’s health. These projects would not only have environmental benefits, but also should create economic profit.

The main problem related to this approach is the large amount of money needed to finance mammoth projects, in addition to the period of time it would take, due to relying on slow biological processes. The economic profit would be generated many years after the initial investment is finished—much beyond the average person’s life expectancy. Given these conditions, is this idea feasible? Would people or companies be willing to invest money with such a prospect? The goal of this project is to answer these questions.

Echevarria was assisted on the project by INTM Adjunct Professor Blake Davis.