Sustainable Finance

General characterization

Prerequisites

Available soon

Bibliography

Amel-Zadeh, Amir, and George Serafeim (2018), "Why and How Investors Use ESG
Information: Evidence from a Global Survey” in Financial Analysts Journal, Vol. 74 (3).

Allen, Erik; Kevin Lyons, and Rodrigo Tavares (2017). "The Application of Machine Learning to Sustainable Finance” in Journal of Environmental Investing, Vol. 8 (1).
 
Eccles, Robert G. and Svetlana Klimenko (2019) “The Investor Revolution” in Harvard Business Review, May-June, p. 106-116.
Krosinsky, Cary and Sophie Purdom (2016), Sustainable Investing: Revolutions in Theory and Practice. New York and London: Routledge.
Sherwood, Matthew W. and Julia Pollard (2018), Responsible Investing: An Introduction to Environmental, Social, and Governance Investments. New York and London: Routledge.
Tavares, Rodrigo; Ashwin Kumar N C; Camille Smith; Lei?la Badis; Nan Wang; and Paz Ambrosy (2016), “ESG Factors and Risk-Adjusted Performance: A New Quantitative Model” in Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, Vol. 6 (4).

Teaching method

Taking into consideration the fundamental purpose of this course, the learning methods most suitable to this course are:
. The method learning-by-examples (demonstration)
. Learning-by-doing (practice by doing)

Evaluation method

Final exam – 50%

. The final exam is mandatory.
. Students are not allowed to consult reading materials.
. The minimum grade in the final exam to pass the course is 6. Cases and Problem sets – 50%
. There will be five homework assignments. The assignments will consist of challenges that students need to provide solutions for. The assignments should be delivered in groups of two (recommended) or three people. Groups needs to be as diverse as possible (gender, nationality etc.). Please submit your answers through Moodle.

Subject matter

1.    What is Sustainable Economy and Sustainable Finance?

. Concepts
. Sustainable finance vs. traditional finance
. Market size and trends
. Sustainable finance risks and returns
. Addressing biases against sustainable finance
. Sustainable finance ecosystem: industry leaders and global standards and regulations
. Case study

2.    How to invest through ESG lenses (16 investment approaches)?
 
. Definitions and investment methods
. ESG products (all asset classes)
. Case study

3.    ESG data

. Human vs. machine data
. Materiality: What ESG factors affect financial performance
. ESG data providers
. Impact data providers
. Integration of ESG data into basic financial models
. Case study

4.    Communication and reporting

. External communication of ESG policies and practices
. Internal communication and education on sustainable finance
. Developing a sustainable finance strategy in a financial organization
. Case study

5.    Sustainable finance for wealth managers, asset managers and institutional investors

. ESG wealth management, family values and private capital
. ESG for fund managers
. Institutional investors: long-term investing and fiduciary duty
. Case study

6.    ESG Thematic Investing

. Green finance
. Gender investing
. Tech for good
. Sustainable intensive agriculture

Programs

Programs where the course is taught: