Sustainable Investing: A Path to a New Horizon

This book tells the story of how the convergence between corporate sustainability and sustainable investing is now becoming a major force driving systemic market changes. The idea and practice of corporate sustainability is no longer a niche movement. Investors are increasingly paying attention to sustainability factors in their analysis and decision-making, thus reinforcing market transformation. In this book, high-level practitioners and academic thought leaders, including contributions from John Ruggie, Fiona Reynolds, Johan Rockström, and Paul Polman, explain the forces behind these developments. The contributors highlight (a) that systemic market change is influenced by various contextual factors that impact how sustainable investing is perceived and practiced; (b) that the integration of ESG factors in investment decisions is impacting markets on a large scale and hence changes practices of major market players (e.g. pension funds); and (c) that technology and the increasing datafication of sustainability act as further accelerators of such change. The book goes beyond standard economic theory approaches to sustainable investing and emphasizes that capitalism founded on more real-world (complex) economics and cooperation can strengthen ESG integration. Aimed at both investment professionals and academics, this book gives the reader access to more practitioner-relevant information and it also discusses implementation issues. The reader will gain insights into how "mainstream" financial actors relate to sustainable investing. Foreword by Mark Carney 1. Sustainable Investing: A Path to a New Horizon Herman Bril, Georg Kell and Andreas Rasche PART I: THE CHANGING CONTEXT OF SUSTAINABLE INVESTING 2. Business and Sustainability, From the Firm to the Biosphere Simon Levin, Martin Reeves and Ania Levina 3. Renewing Markets from Within: How Businesses and the Investment Community Can Drive Transformational Change Georg Kell and Andreas Rasche 4. Good Governance: Navigating on Purpose and Complexity Based Principles Theo Kocken and Stefan Lundbergh 5. The End of the Beginning: Next Generation Responsbile Investment Fiona Reynolds and Nathan Fabian, with Rory Sullivan 6. Planetary Boundaries: A Compass for Investing for the Common Good Johan Rockström, Almut Beringer, Beatrice Crona, Owen Gaffney and Daniel Klingenfeld PART II: RETHINKING SUSTAINBLE FINANCE AND LEADERSHIP 7. Navigating the ESG World Patrick Bolton, Simon Levin and Frédéric Samama 8. A New Age F