4.0

credits

Average Course Rating

This course aims to equip students to analyze sustainable finance and impact investing and understand the range of current approaches being pursued. The class will be in seminar format and students will be expected to participate actively in class. There will be four main elements to assessment: 1. Classwork, reading, group-work and general participation, 2. A mid-term paper focusing on one of the areas covered in the first half of the course, with each student choosing a topic based on a list of questions, 3. Two group-work presentations. 4. A final paper focusing on one of the areas covered in the second half of the course, with each student choosing a topic based on a list of questions. By the end of the course, participants should be able to: Identify and understand how to assess, measure and report on critical environmental and social risks of private investment. Identify and assess key governance risks in managing private firms and investments. Describe and distinguish between different investment strategies in their approach to managing environmental, social and governance risks and impacts, across different asset classes. Describe the motivations of different classes of investors, and understand their constraints in pursuing different sustainable and impact investment strategies. Identify current practices and tools to manage, measure and report on positive environmental and social impacts of an investment portfolio. Critically evaluate theories of change of how private investment impacts the environment and society, both positively and negatively; and the relationship between financial returns and impact. Understand the historic evolution of investment markets and assess current trends and outlook with respect to environment, social and governance risks and impacts.