 Introduction to Sustainable Finance & InvestingDiane-Charlotte Simon Chapter 8 in Sustainability:Business and Investment Implications, 2023, pp 195-240 from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. Abstract: This chapter introduces Part II on Investment Implications of sustainability and other topics related to sustainable finance. The chapter begins with an introduction to finance and investing. In layman’s terms, finance is defined as an instrument to support the payment of everyday expenses for individuals (personal finance), companies (corporate finance), or governments (public/government finance). From this perspective, finance provides access to things that could not otherwise be purchased with cash at hand. Personal finance can assist an individual through a student loan, a consumer loan, or a mortgage to buy a house. Corporate finance can provide a company with resources for its operations or its growth to develop new products or acquire new equipment and other companies. The financial instruments used will depend on the company’s needs and the stage of its life cycle. Public/government finance can provide government resources to pay sovereign debt, country budgets (for education, social security, public health, national defense, etc.), and public servants salaries and pensions. The chapter then presents a brief history of the field of sustainable finance and describes various sustainable investment strategies ranging from risk management to mission-driven investments. It tries to bring clarity to what some call an “alphabet soup” of acronyms (MDGs, SDGs, SRIs, ESGs, etc.). The chapter notes several important challenges in sustainable finance that still need to be addressed such as the lack of a shared language and rigor in the use of terminology as well as the risk of “greenwashing” and mislabeling that fail to capture sustainability impact. The chapter concludes with a discussion on investor profiles and the relationship between sustainable investment strategies, risk, return, and impacts. Keywords: Sustainability; Sustainability Risks and Opportunities; Sustainability: Business and Investment Implications; Sustainable Finance; Sustainable Investing; Impact Investing; Sustainable Entrepreneurship; ESG; Business Case for Sustainability; Investment Case for Sustainability; Introduction to Sustainability; Introduction Sustainable Finance; Introduction to Sustainable Investing; Introduction to ESG; Introduction to Impact Investing; Sustainability Handbook; Sustainability Textbook; Sustainable Business Textbook; Sustainable Business Handbook; Sustainable Finance Textbook; Sustainable Finance Handbook; Impact Investing Textbook; Risk Management & Sustainability; The Corporate Sustainability Spectrum; Business and Financial Implications of Climate Change; The Financial Case for Embedding Sustainability Core to Business Strategy; Corporate Sustainability & Financial Performance; Shareholder Engagement; The Pressing Needs For A Sustainable World; Scale-up; Impact Entrepreneur; Impact Entrepreneurship; Sustainability Science and Challenges; Internalizing the Externalities; The Role of Government; Fiscal Impact; Macro-economic Performance; Realism; Mission Creep; Single Issue Capture; GreenWashing; Whitewashing; Hidden Agendas; Transparency; and Competitiveness (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wsi:wschap:9789811240928_0008 Ordering information: This item can be ordered from Access Statistics for this chapter More chapters in World Scientific Book Chapters from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. |
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