Advanced sustainable accounting and finance
MGT-540 / 3 credits
Teacher: Markarian Lavetsky Garen
Language: English
Remark: SMT students : MA3 only
Summary
Students will learn tools and techniques to improve society and create value from an accounting and finance perspective. This course will develop the student's critical thinking, problem-solving and presentation skills to assess and understand the problematics linked to ESG investing and reporting.
Content
Be aware that this course is given during the 2nd half of the semester, intensively from 4 November to 18 December 2025.
Introduction to ESG and financial statements crash course
Shareholder Capitalism vs Stakeholder Capitalism: From Shareholder Primacy to a
Stakeholder Centric regime and ESG Reporting: ESG Measurement, Reporting Frameworks, and
ESG rating agencies
Environmental: Climate Risk, Net-Zero, Stranded Assets and ESG Financing
Social: The Challenges of quantifying and reporting social impact
Governance: What makes good Governance?
The rise of Impact Investing and ESG Portfolio: Incorporating ESG into the investment
process
ESG S&P 500 Index, ESG score, WEF Davos Framework, and Wrap-up with 360°
Feedback
Keywords
ESG Reporting, ESG Standards & Frameworks, ESG investment, Net-Zero objectives, ESG Financing, Ethical investing, Accounting and Finance in the Sustainability context, ESG S&P 500 Index
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, the student must be able to:
- Recognize the complexity of ESG and ESG Disclosures
- Examine the trade-offs between creating profits and enhancing ESG
- Distinguish "Greenwashing" and true ESG
- Explore recent developments in sustainability accounting
- Analyze and benchmark ESG and sustainability metrics in the corporate annual reports of companies
- Develop critical thinking, analytical and presentation skills
Transversal skills
- Give feedback (critique) in an appropriate fashion.
- Respect relevant legal guidelines and ethical codes for the profession.
- Identify the different roles that are involved in well-functioning teams and assume different roles, including leadership roles.
- Demonstrate the capacity for critical thinking
- Demonstrate a capacity for creativity.
- Continue to work through difficulties or initial failure to find optimal solutions.
- Make an oral presentation.
- Access and evaluate appropriate sources of information.
Assessment methods
Group presentations (50% of the grade) and an individual project (25% of the grade), class participation (25% of the grade).
In the programs
- Semester: Fall
- Exam form: During the semester (winter session)
- Subject examined: Advanced sustainable accounting and finance
- Courses: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Exercises: 1 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Type: optional
- Semester: Fall
- Exam form: During the semester (winter session)
- Subject examined: Advanced sustainable accounting and finance
- Courses: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Exercises: 1 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Type: optional
- Semester: Fall
- Exam form: During the semester (winter session)
- Subject examined: Advanced sustainable accounting and finance
- Courses: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Exercises: 1 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Type: optional