Values at Work: Sustainable Investing and ESG Reporting

Sustainable investing is a rapidly growing and evolving field. With investors expressing ever greater interest in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics and reporting, companies face a sustainability imperative and the need to remake their business models to respond to an array of pressing issues including climate change, air and water pollution, racial justice, workplace diversity, economic inequality, privacy, corporate integrity, and good governance. From equities to fixed income and from private equity to impact-investing, investors of all kinds now want to understand which companies will be marketplace leaders in a business future redefined by sustainability. Thus, investment strategies, risk models, financial vehicles, applications, data, metrics, standards, and regulations are all changing rapidly around the world.

In an effort to better understand the current status and movement of this dynamic field and to provide a practical reference for the growing pool of investors, financial advisors, companies, and academics seeking information on sustainable investing and ESG reporting, this edited book covers the latest trends, tools, and thinking. It showcases the work of authors from leading companies and academic institutions across a range of vital topics such as financial disclosure, portfolio assessment, ESG metrics construction, and law as well as regulation. Readers of the book will be better able to identify and address the hurdles to moving mainstream capital toward more sustainable companies, investments, and projects.

Publication Date:

December, 2020

Daniel C. Esty is the Hillhouse Professor at Yale University, USA, with appointments in both the Law and Environment Schools, and Director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy. Professor Esty has written or edited thirteen books (including the prizewinning volumes Green to Gold and A Better Planet) and dozens of articles on environmental protection, regulatory reform, and sustainability—and their connections to corporate strategy, competitiveness, and trade. He served in various leadership roles at the EPA from 1989 to 1993 and as Commissioner of Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection from 2011 to 2014.

Todd Cort is a faculty member at the Yale School of Management and Yale School of the Environment. He serves as Faculty Co-Director for the Yale Center for Business and Environment as well as Co-Director of the Yale Initiative on Sustainable Finance. Prior to re-joining academia in 2014, Todd served as Director of Sustainability Advisory Services for TUV Rhineland, DNV GL, and Two Tomorrows. In this capacity, he has worked extensively with companies around their ESG disclosures and investor relations. Todd is also the founder of NPV Associates.