Environmental disasters are thought to increase the focus on corporate sustainability in the communities where they occur. Extracting data on wildfires (a frequent type of disaster in the U.S.) and using ESG ratings and EPA air enforcement actions to construct measures of local corporate...

We offer an applied approach to the double materiality assessment of environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters, which could serve as practical guidance to the 60K companies required by EU regulation (CSRD) to carry out this assessment. Focussing on the financial materiality of climate...

We live in peculiar times: on the one hand, many people — mainly in Western countries — enjoy an unprecedentedly high standard of living from a historical perspective. On the other hand, a considerable part of the population has a feeling that something went wrong, which is underscored by...

The state of implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the European Union (EU) in the context of the EU framework governing business and human rights (B&HR) is worthy of consideration. This chapter follows the top-down approach: it explores the relevant EU legal and policy...

This study evaluates the extent to which firms acknowledge climate change and communicate credible climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies in their environmental sustainability reports. We assess the credibility of firms' strategies by retrieving domain knowledge using Linked Data...

We assess the feasibility, optimality, and policy implications of Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG)-linked or “green” lending in a credit market where banks incorporate such non-financial data in credit allocation decisions. We identify an asymmetric information problem:...

European Union (EU) institutions and agencies are increasingly raising awareness on the circular economy agenda. They are encouraging marketplace stakeholders to engage in sustainable production and consumption behaviors by reducing, reusing, restoring, refurbishing and recycling resources in...

Sustainable finance refers to financial practices, policies, and interdisciplinary science, handling financial services, financial resources, financial decision-making, financial regulations, and the financial industry overall from sustainability perspectives by integrating environmental,...

As the largest sovereign wealth fund (SWF) in the world, the Norwegian SWF’s efforts to move in a more sustainable direction are often followed by other institutional investors. This chapter examines how the Norwegian SWF (officially, the Government Pension Fund – Global, or GPFG) has...

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investing has mushroomed in the recent past. As assets under management have grown impressively, so have questions. This chapter surveys the landscape of ESG investing, starting with definitions, components, investing strategies, market size, and the...