ØABED3600 Sustainable Finance Course description

The evolution of sustainable development and climate change discourse integrated into 3Ps framework; People, Planet and Profit; that allows us to comprehend the nexus between corporate financial performance (CFP) and corporate sustainability performance (ESG). Conventional finance provides an elaborate framework to report and analyze CFP but generally ignores ESG, whereas sustainable finance overcomes this limitation. The objective of this course is to develop the skills of the students to analyze the sustainability performance of a company and recommend how it can improve its sustainability performance without compromising its financial performance to create and sustain shared value. This course is designed to respond to the increasing demand for expertise on topics related to ESG as employers are keen to hire people who are knowledgeable and experienced in areas such as green finance, sustainability reporting and climate risk mitigation.

Language of instruction is English.

The course assumes that the students are familiar with basic concepts of corporate finance and investment.

None

After completing the course, the student should have the following overall learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

The student has knowledge of

• what sustainability means for a company, a society, and the planet.
• the key elements of ESG metrics and sustainability report, and how a company engages with stakeholders to communicate corporate endeavors of creating and sustaining shared value.
• sustainability related risks, opportunities and other externalities found in corporate ecosystem.
• evolving corporate financial ethics standards and practices.

Skills

The student can

• explain, apply, and evaluate current methods of sustainability finance.
• use the ESG metrics and global sustainability and ethical standards in preparing sustainability report.
• analyze and assess a company’s sustainability strategy against the key elements of global standards for corporate sustainability reporting.
• integrate corporate sustainability metrics, sustainability related risks & opportunities, ethical standards, and other externalities into sustainable finance strategies.

General competence

The student

• is aware of the developments in corporate sustainability (ESG) drive and fully conversant with the scope of global standards for corporate sustainability reporting sources.
• can rationalize and contextualize corporate financial decisions to enhance firm value by embracing stakeholders’ expectations about sustainability and business ethics.
• can exchange views on economic, ethical, social, and environmental implications of corporate financial decision making.

This course entails considerable self-reflection and guided self-study and is interdisciplinary in nature. This course provides a robust understanding of how sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and business ethics traverse corporate financial strategies. This course is delivered in four modules. Each module comprises of three components: 1. a lecture to present the course content; 2. a seminar to provide a holistic overview of the developments in corporate arena and their implications for sustainable finance; 3. a workshop for hands-on experience with sustainability finance and sustainability report.

The course is completed with physical attendance on campus. The students are required to work in groups of 3 (+/-1) to develop their social skills and enable them to work successfully and fairly in a team within the context of sustainability finance. This course uses group dynamics and Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) for lifelong learning wherein the students are encouraged to reflect upon environmental, social, governance, and ethical implications of their financial decisions embracing stakeholders’ expectations to enhance corporate economic as well as sustainability performance.

As an eligibility criteria to take the exam, the student must have completed and submitted the following coursework requirement by the submission deadline:

• Coursework requirement: One written submission is to be carried out in groups of 3 (+/-1) students. However, in some special cases a student may be allowed to work individually. The scope of the submission shall not exceed 3000 words. The information regarding the roll-out and the submission deadline will be given in the beginning of the semester.

The objective of the coursework requirement is to develop the skills of the students to use corporate database LSEG (Refinitiv), some statistical software, and other relevant resources for the sustainability analysis, and to write a report.

The required coursework must be completed and submitted by the given deadline for the student to take the exam.

The exam in the course consists of two parts: an obligatory assignment and a supervised exam of 4 hours.

1. The obligatory assignment (a revised version of the coursework requirement) counts 40% of the final grade. The scope and operational details of this assignment are given under the course requirements above.
2. Supervised exam of 4 hours counts 60% of the final grade.

The overall/final grade is based on a weighted average of the obtained grades of the two components i.e., 40% for the assignment + 60% for the supervised exam.

The students who wish to take the supervised exam later, or the students who want to re-take the supervised exam are not required to do the assignment afresh. Their obtained grade of the assignment shall count towards their final grade.

The following aids are permitted:

1. The obligatory assignment:

All aids are permitted, as long as the student complies with the rules for source referencing.

2. The supervised exam:

• Textbook - Principles of Sustainable Finance by Dirk Schoenmaker & Willem Schramade
• One dictionary: Native language-English/English-native language or English/English
• One notebook containing hand-written and/or printed notes

Please note that it is not allowed to bring any loose papers and post it slips in either the textbook or the notebook.

Grade scale A - F

The exam papers are assessed by one internal and one external examiner.

At least 25% of the exam papers will be assessed by two examiners. The grades awarded for the papers assessed by two examiners form the basis for determining the level for all the exam papers.

Muhammad Azeem Qureshi