ESG Academic & Practitioner Network

ENVIRONMENT, SOCIAL AND GOVERNANCE NETWORK HOSTED BY MSC AND CBS SUSTAINABILITY

The ESG Academic & Practitioner Network at CBS
The term ESG - Environmental, Social and Governance (“G” referring to Corporate Governance) – is gaining significance in the world of finance and beyond. Recent years have thus seen ESG investing becoming much more widespread, both in terms of awareness among investors and invested funds, and this is putting additional pressure on companies to disclose and communicate their sustainability performance. In conjunction with the new disclosure requirements that companies will be subjected to in Europe as part of the EU Taxonomy for Sustainable Activities, this calls for renewed attention toward the roles and functions of investors and the financial sector in sustainable development.  

With the new ESG network, hosted by the Department of Management, Society and Communication and the CBS Sustainability Centre, CBS wishes to enhance its engagement in this key field through collaboration with practitioner and policy networks. A further aim of the initiative is to identify the research needs of the network and to strengthen the planning of research projects and funding.

Network focus
ESG investing offers a bridge between sustainability and corporate performance objectives, particularly in terms of return and risk.

The focus of the newly established practitioner/academic ESG Network will be on the investigation of questions such as:

  • How are ESG measures and criteria governed and organized?
  • How can ESG data be improved (e.g., by balancing quantity and quality)?
  • What role do technological advances, like AI and machine learning, play for the future of ESG?
  • What are the impacts and challenges of the application and adoption of ESG by investors, companies and society?
  • What are the challenges in the adoption of ESG measures for investors, companies and society?
  • How does ESG’s focus on data and materiality compare to other perspectives on CSR and sustainability?
  • How do developments in ESG create new opportunities and challenges for professionals in finance, Including CFOs?  
  • What are the linkages between developments in ESG and broader discussions regarding sustainable finance?
  • Turning the ESG lens on the financial sector itself, including pension funds, banks and private equity funds, how do they cope internally with CSR and sustainability issues, including an issue such as gender equality?
  • Turning to CBS and other business schools, what educational issues accrue to continued development and improvement of ESG practices?

Launch

A webinar on the topic of “ESG + T” (‘T’ for Technology) served as the official launch of the network. The webinar, a joint venture with Dansif, took place on March 31st 2021 and featured Camilla Kampmann from IBM and Ole Buhl from ATP. It was an occasion to discuss the technology and data aspects of recent and future developments in ESG and sustainability reporting, with inputs both from the technology supply-side (IBM) and demand-side (ATP). The webinar touched upon issues ranging from new platform solutions and how they can help investors and others deal with enormous amounts of data, to whether or how technology development/usage can be integrated into the ESG strategies of investors. Use the link below to listen to a podcast from the webinar.

Activities
"Esg + T", webinar, March 2021

"Integrating ESG and illiquid assets", panel debate, March 2022

"Making Sense of Sustainable Finance and ESG – Views from Inside and Outside the Discipline of Corporate Finance", seminar, November 2022

"How can we make oceans count in financial decision-making?", panel debate, December 2022

Want to join the network?
While hosted by MSC/CBS Sustainability, the Network came into being as a joint initiative with colleagues from several CBS departments, such as Accounting, Finance, and Organization. New members of the Network from within as well as from outside CBS are very welcome.

For further information about the network and participation in its activities, please contact Sarah Netter, sn.msc@cbs.dk or sign up to the CBS Sustainability Centre newsletter, through which we share relevant information on upcoming events.


 

ESG + T Webinar

The page was last edited by: Department of Management, Society and Communication // 07/11/2023