But Beslik tells Schragger how his teenage experiences of sleeping on park benches and in bus stations, before taking a refugee bus to Poland and eventually a ferry to Sweden, helped frame his thinking and his convictions.
In the fashion industry, where it can be hard to tell genuine sustainability efforts from greenwashing, he explains how his earlier life has helped hone his ability to sniff out the truth.
To hear what he has to say, listen to the full podcast HERE.
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“When you experience war, you see the worst side of human beings and also possibly the best side. You see how people are trying to resist brutality, but you also see people who are committed to doing things that are really not nice,” he said.
“For me the finance industry, the economy, is all about people. It’s about people making decisions at the end. I think working with sustainable investments over the years, the more I look back, my conclusions are often ending at the behaviour of the people and that it’s what we choose to do that makes a difference.
“You want to cut to the chase and talk about the real things. You want to see the real improvements and what is really going on, because you get allergic to all of the nice packaging and nice framing of things, so it’s almost a vaccine you get against bullsh*t.
“I realised that the financial industry has probably the most muscle and power, it’s truly global, and it has all of the means to make the world a better place. It’s the financial industry that calls the shots and I still believe that’s the case.”
Beslik is particularly interested in the fashion industry’s impact on people and has attracted attention for his calculations showing that a well-known fashion brand could afford to pay living wages to garment workers by increasing the prices on their clothes by only a few cents.
In this interview, Beslik weighs in on the apparel’s sustainability performance and – spoiler alert – he comes down very hard on the industry. He says that it has so far failed to be a positive force and could be regarded as a “stranded asset”.
But he also says that he believes that global brands have the potential to achieve real change – such as by ensuring that the people who make their clothes are paid a living wage.
A range of topics is covered, including the strengths and weaknesses of the sustainable investment industry, why t-shirts should be more expensive, and why, despite everything, the fashion industry is still worth investing in.
To hear more insight from our expert guest, listen to the full podcast by CLICKING HERE.
