Arbor Mundi
Sustainability policy, law and strategy research
Research projects
Recent and current research projects focused on the private sector perspective on the sustainability transition:
Mainstreaming Nature
University of Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership (CISL) MSt dissertation on how regulatory policy can encourage and enable businesses to treat nature as a strategic issue.
Future of Boards
Multi-year research project between CISL and DLA Piper on enablers and barriers to boards navigating the sustainability transition. I co-led the project for DLA Piper and acted as a technical expert contributor and peer reviewer.
Capabilities 4 the Future
UN project to address the sustainability skills gap across policymakers, the private sector and the education & training sector. I am acting as a technical expert contributor and presented at the UNIDO Multilateral Industrial Policy Side Event.
Insights
About me
I’m Kelly Sporn, a lawyer who has specialised in sustainability policy since the inception of the EU and UK’s sustainability & ESG policy programmes. I have both an in-house and technical advisory perspective on this topic; I led on sustainability regulatory policy strategy at a bank, and have worked in sustainability business strategy and leadership roles at international law firms.
I’ve sat on various leading industry fora on sustainability, including the inaugural cohort of working groups for the Bank of England-UK Financial Conduct Authority Climate Financial Risk Forum, the City of London High Growth Markets Steering Committee and His Majesty’s Sustainable Markets Initiative.
My sustainability experience is backed by nearly two decades in financial services in-house and in private practice. I’ve worked in both transactional (structured capital markets and derivatives) and markets regulatory, in legal, policy strategy and business roles, including at Linklaters, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, UBS, Credit Suisse and Barclays. Prior to moving to the UK in 2002 I worked in business management and front-line politics.
Arbor Mundi is the Latin name for Yggdrasil, also known as the world tree or tree of life. This site is the home of my research and insights from an academic and practitioner perspective.