Making the Sustainable Investment Case

Making the sustainable investment case is a crucial skill for every type of professional, whether in the private, public, or not-for-profit sectors. This course takes lessons from the theories and practices of sustainable investment in the professional investment industry and makes them accessible to other disciplines and fields. Every investment has implicit environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors, because every decision made relies upon humans to make, do, buy, or sell something, and relies upon the rule of law to govern contractual relationships between businesses and protect minority investors. In every sector and situation, one is increasingly expected to identify, measure, and report material ESG risks, returns, and impact. Professional investment decisions are made daily for more than US $100 trillion in assets under management in the global investment industry. Bloomberg Intelligence forecasts investment decisions explicitly including ESG factors will reach, "US $35 trillion assets under management by 2030...factoring in an 85% growth slowdown, showing resilience against a widening backlash." The headwinds from political regimes have had an impact, but the field still grows, especially in Europe and Asia-Pacific. This course explores capital allocation decisions more broadly, translating the practices from the investment context to other situations of capital allocation. The course pedagogy is grounded in industry experience, with cross-disciplinary academic and practitioner literature. We employ the Socratic method, empowering students to express their agency in covering the materials through self-discovery. We ensure students learn from the most relevant material sourced globally, leveraging Harvard Business School case studies and examples drawn from the food and beverage sector. We provide experiential learning through current practice in Fund Labs (beta) with mini-projects for investment fund managers and simulated company pair investment recommendations.