This course is part of the Business in Society and Finance & Accounting track.
Introduction to Sustainable Investing
 

Sustainable Investing

$1,750
Next 6-week session starts May 17th
Evaluate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors, and measure and manage impact investments.
6
weeks
5
hours per week
6
modules
Self-Paced
with regular deadlines

 This course earns you a Certificate of Completion from HBS Online. What you earn.

Overview
Syllabus
Enrollment
Stories
FAQs

Key Concepts

Explore the evolving sustainable investing landscape
Understand how to incorporate ESG factors into investment decisions
Apply frameworks to measure and monitor sustainable investment opportunities
Analyze cutting-edge implementation strategies
Gain insights into the climate risk inherent in investment opportunities
Discover how to integrate risks into financial models
Think critically about how and where to add value while avoiding “impact washing”

Who Will Benefit

Learn how to evaluate, measure, and manage sustainable investment opportunities with cutting-edge frameworks, strategies, and techniques.
The course content is well designed and helps investors get a basic understanding of what sustainable finance is, its challenges, the path forward, and its key players.
Akanksha Davera
Sustainable Investing Participant
Gain frameworks and analytical tools you can apply to make future financial decisions that serve your clients’ or organization’s goals and objectives.
“I think it's the best online course on Sustainable Investing.”
Andrew Buks
Instructor of Management & Business Policy and Strategy at School of Business, Black Hills State University
Develop practical skills you can apply to one of the fastest-growing fields in finance.
The course is a comprehensive introduction filled with dynamic case studies that I found fascinating.
Alvina Chan
Sustainable Investing Participant

What You Earn

Certificate of Completion

Certificate of Completion

Boost your resume with a Certificate of Completion from HBS Online

Earn by: completing this course

Certificate

Certificate of Specialization

Prove your mastery of finance and accounting or business in society

Earn by: completing any three courses within either subject area to earn a Certificate of Specialization

Syllabus

6 Modules, 30 Hours
Download full syllabus

Prerequisite

To succeed in the course, participants should have completed an introductory finance course or equivalent at some point during their education and possess a basic understanding of investment management, capital markets, and asset classes.
5
hrs
Module 1

Overview of Sustainable Investing

Learn key terminology and develop an understanding of the sustainable investing sector and its importance and viability.

Highlights

What Is Sustainable Investing?
Can We Do Well by Doing Good?
Introduction: Omidyar Network
ShowHide Details

Concepts

  1. Introduction to Sustainable Investing
  2. Incumbent Players Integrating Sustainability
  3. The Returns and Impact Continuum
  4. Module Wrap-Up

Featured Exercises

  • Categorize business model characteristics and environmental, social, and governance criteria
  • Reflect on challenges and opportunities of sustainability strategies
5
hrs
Module 2

Public Equities

Understand the role of ESG factors, and evaluate different approaches, risks, and returns to incorporating ESG as an asset owner or manager.

Highlights

Non-Traditional Investment Criteria like ESG
Introduction: California State Teachers' Retirement System
CalSTRS: Effects of Shareholder Engagement
ShowHide Details

Concepts

  1. Sustainable Investing in Public Markets
  2. Divestment: Screening and Portfolio Tilts
  3. Engagement and Proxy Voting
  4. ESG Integration and Alpha Generation
  5. Sustainable Public Market Funds

Featured Exercises

  • Evaluate the ESG performance of various companies
  • Match ESG use cases to corresponding strategies
  • Articulate divestment goals and theories of change
5
hrs
Module 3

Venture, Private Equity, and Sustainable Debt

Identify sources of value-add in private impact investing, analyze how managers weigh financial and social returns, and explore different types of sustainable debt.

Highlights

Private-Market Impact Investing
Impactful Private Equity
Impact Investing Fund Selection
Evaluating Bellwether Coffee
ShowHide Details

Concepts

  1. The Mainstreaming of Impact Investments
  2. The Potential for an "Impact Edge"
  3. Align Incentives to Create Value
  4. Green Bonds and Other Debt Instruments

Featured Exercises

  • Analyze characteristics and assess the performance of funds and fund managers
5
hrs
Module 4

Measuring, Managing, and Accounting for Impact

Interpret and analyze frameworks for measuring environmental and social factors, and integrate impact measurement into investment and management processes.

Highlights

Impact Attribution, Heirarchy of Evidence
TGP Rise: Would Everfi Create Enough Impact?
TPG Rise: Investment Result, Takeaways from the Rise Fund
ShowHide Details

Concepts

  1. Developing Impact Strategies
  2. Measuring and Accounting for Impact
  3. The Rise Fund: Impact Multiple of Money
  4. ESG Disclosure

Featured Exercises

  • Break down an impact logic chain
  • Calculate expected impact, risk-adjusted total impact, and impact multiple of money score
5
hrs
Module 5

Integrating Climate Risk and Financing Climate Solutions

Understand the fundamentals of climate finance and risk inherent in investment portfolios, and integrate climate-related risks and opportunities into investment analysis.

Highlights

Climate-Related Risks and Responses
Generate Capital
ShowHide Details

Concepts

  1. The Era of Climate Change
  2. Asset Allocation Amid the Climate Crisis
  3. Funding and Scaling Up Climate Innovation

Featured Exercises

  • Relate Sustainable Development Goals and climate change
  • Consider challenges of climate change and scaling up climate solutions
5
hrs
Module 6

Long-Run Theories of Change

Analyze how mission-driven nonprofits measurably increase their impact and envision and examine the future of sustainable investing.

Highlights

Theories of Change
Introduction: Social Finance, Financial Innovation for Social Change
Introduction: Ford Foundation, the Other 95%
ShowHide Details

Concepts

  1. Pay for Success
  2. Leveraging the Entire Institution for Change
  3. The Evolution of Capitalism

Featured Exercises

  • Assess outcomes of the Pay-for-Success model
  • Analyze risks and opportunities of mission-related investments
  • Prioritize course takeaways and how to implement them

Interested in using this course for CFA Institute credit?

The CFA Institute—including the Chartered Financial Analyst and Certificate in Investment Performance Measurement programs—allows its members the ability to self-determine and self-report continuing education credits earned from external sources. CFA Institute members are encouraged to self-document such credits in their online Professional Learning tracker.
Free E-Book

A Manager's Guide to Finance & Accounting

Learn about the difference between finance and accounting, the financial skills all managers need, and how taking an online course can help you achieve your educational goals and accelerate your career.

Our Difference

Sustainable Investing will equip you with the insights, frameworks, and skills to evaluate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors and measure and manage impact resulting from investments.
Stay active by engaging in a new activity every three to five minutes.
Stay active by engaging in a new activity every three to five minutes.
Get social by collaborating and networking with a global community of peers before, during, and after the course.
Get social by collaborating and networking with a global community of peers before, during, and after the course.
Immerse yourself in real-world, case-based examples brought to life by industry-leading experts from companies like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, DBL Partners, and the Ford Foundation.
Immerse yourself in real-world, case-based examples brought to life by industry-leading experts from companies like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, DBL Partners, and the Ford Foundation.

About the Professors

Shawn Cole
Sustainable Investing

John G. McLean Professor of Business Administration
"Sustainable Investing is an online course that equips investment professionals and those in related fields with the insights, frameworks, and skills to evaluate, and manage, and measure social and environmental impact when making investment decisions."

Vikram Gandhi
Sustainable Investing

Senior Lecturer of Business Administration
"In this course, you'll explore the intersection of investment and impact and learn how to incorporate ESG factors into your investment decisions."

Dates & Eligibility

Starting
Mar
22
6 Weeks  $1,750
Application deadline has closed
View weekly calendar
Closed
Starting
May
17
6 Weeks  $1,750
Application deadline May 8
View weekly calendar
Starting
Jul
26
6 Weeks  $1,750
Application deadline July 17
View weekly calendar
  • Free application
  • No documentation required
  • Confirmation within one week

All applicants must be at least 18 years of age, proficient in English, and committed to learning and engaging with fellow participants throughout the course.

Learn about bringing this course to your organization.

Learner Stories

90%
are more self-assured at work
The course content is well designed and helps investors get a basic understanding of what sustainable finance is, its challenges, the path forward, and its key players.
Akanksha Davera
Sustainable Investing Participant
I think it's the best online course on Sustainable Investing.
Andrew Buks
Instructor of Management & Business Policy and Strategy at School of Business, Black Hills State University
* Source: 2022 surveys and course data
 
All FAQs

Sustainable Investing FAQs

Participants in Sustainable Investing are eligible for a Certificate of Completion from Harvard Business School Online.

Participants are expected to fully complete all coursework in a thoughtful and timely manner. This will mean meeting each week’s course module deadlines and fully answering questions posed therein. This helps ensure participants proceed through the course at a similar pace and can take full advantage of social learning opportunities. In addition to module and assignment completion, we expect you to offer feedback on others’ reflections and contribute to conversations on the platform. Participants who fail to complete the course requirements will not receive a certificate and will not be eligible to retake the course.

More detailed information on course requirements will be communicated at the start of the course. No grades are assigned for Sustainable Investing. Participants will either be evaluated as complete or not complete.

You will have access to the materials in every prior module as you progress through the program. Access to course materials and the course platform ends 60 days after the final deadline in the program.

At the end of each course module, you will be able to download a PDF summary highlighting key concepts used throughout the course. At the end of the program, you will receive a PDF compilation of all of the module summary documents. We hope the module summary documents will serve as a helpful resource after you finish the course.

Once you've earned your Certificate of Completion, list it on your resume along with the date of completion:

Harvard Business School Online

Certificate in Sustainable Investing

[Cohort Start Month and Year]

List your certificate on your LinkedIn profile under "Education" with the language from the Credential Verification page:

School: Harvard Business School Online
Dates Attended: [The year you participated in the program]
Degree: Other; Certificate in Sustainable Investing
Field of Study: Leave blank
Grade: "Complete"
Activities and Societies: Leave blank
Description:

Sustainable Investing is a 6-week, 30-hour online certificate program from Harvard Business School. Sustainable Investing equips investment professionals and those in related fields with the insights, frameworks, and skills to evaluate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors and measure and manage impact investments.

The program was developed by leading Harvard Business School faculty and is delivered in an active learning environment based on the HBS signature case-based learning model.

Participants should have completed an introductory finance course or equivalent at some point during their education and possess a basic understanding of investment management, capital markets, and asset classes.

CFA Institute (including the Chartered Financial Analyst and Certificate in Investment Performance Measurement programs) allows its members the ability to self-determine and self-report continuing education credits earned from external sources. CFA Institute members are encouraged to self-document such credits in their online Professional Learning tracker.

 

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