The Materiality of ESG Factors Specialization

In this course, you will explore the foundations upon which modern-day ESG was built, how market forces react to ESG, and ways to create and maintain value using ESG investment strategies. You will also learn about the five pathways of materiality, and how those interplay with or against ESG performance.

You will examine the many challenges that corporations face when it comes to leveraging ESG investing into their portfolios, and how the changing landscape of ESG is making this an area of untapped potential when it comes to the financial workings of businesses today. You'll also learn from real-life case studies how you can assess risk, create better risk management policy, and build a map to identify valuable areas of opportunity and create better decision-making approaches. Lastly, you will look at portfolio optimization and the utilization of ESG factors to maximize returns in addition to examining different funds, their fee structures, and how investors can blend ESG into their investment portfolio. By the end of this course, you will know the best practices for creating a solid risk management plan and how to create a culture that is sensitive to ESG. You will better understand the history and framework behind ESG, and how to create a path forward using smarter methods to identify risk, navigate ESG issues, and reach ESG investing goals.

In this course, you will analyze the importance of assessing stakeholder interest or salience in different ESG factors and industry variances. You will also evaluate the importance of ESG factors in your investment decisions, including how you can use them to create socially responsible portfolios with better-than-average returns. You will also examine the risks associated with ESG investing and how they can affect the corporation’s profitability.

Next, you will review the concepts of positive and negative screening and identify the ESG factors that cause investors to divest from or negatively screen certain assets. You will review ESG risks associated with climate, diversity, executive compensation, governance issues, and evaluate how corporate performance and stock prices correlate to ESG scores. You will also examine how ESG adoption could accelerate the growing trend of fossil fuel divestment, its minimal impact on returns, and what this means long term. Finally, you will analyze quantitative and qualitative measurements and explore different protocols, such as MSCI, to evaluate and provide ESG ratings that can affect stakeholder and investor interest. By the end of this course, you will have explored how ESG investing has grown, assessed the variety of ways it has been integrated into the market, and analyzed the complex indexing and measurement techniques employed in the ESG space today.

In this course, you will focus on understanding climate change and the risks and opportunities that it creates for businesses in the 21st century. You will analyze the current impacts of climate change on a global scale, and the investment shifts that are required to achieve a net-zero economy. Next, you will analyze the role of climate disclosures and their importance in ESG.

You will also review private environmental governance, the active role that private companies are playing in combating climate change, and the parallels between the public and private sectors. Additionally, you will assess the insurance industry and the ways that it spreads risk, as well as creative ways that insurance as a form of private or public governance can build climate resilience. In the final module, you will review the concept of greenwashing: what is driving firms to make exaggerated environmental claims, why it is harmful, and examples of enforcement actions. Finally, you will learn about the importance of product stewardship. By the end of this course, you will have a thorough understanding of public and private environmental governance, the financial risks that unmitigated climate change is creating, climate disclosures, and innovative ways that business leaders can view and implement climate solutions.