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Sustainable Investment and the Role of Investors

INSTRUCTORS
Prague University of Economics and Business

Tanweer Ali

University of Konstanz

Walter Dominik

AIM

The aim of this course is to provide students with a structured introduction to sustainable investment and the role of investors within the financial system.

The course seeks to develop a critical understanding of how sustainability considerations, including environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, are integrated into investment decision-making, and to evaluate whether and how investors can influence corporate behaviour and long-term sustainability outcomes.

By combining theoretical frameworks with applied analysis and a detailed case study, the course equips students with the analytical tools required to assess sustainable investments in complex, real-world contexts.

 

MAIN TOPICS

  • Evolution of sustainable investing, its economic role, and its place within the financial system
  • Sustainability concepts, ESG criteria, and major sustainable investment approaches
  • Investor attitudes towards climate risk and their preferences for sustainable assets
  • Can investors speed up the green transition with their own actions? And if so, which strategies are most efficient?  
  • Investor influence on corporate behaviour, including governance, strategy, and environmental performance
  • Roles, incentives, and perspectives of different investor types (e.g. institutional investors, pension funds, hedge funds)
  • Applied case study and role-play analysis of ENI from multiple investor perspectives

 

TEACHING METHODOLOGY

The course will combine lectures with interactive and applied learning methods. Lectures will introduce key theoretical concepts related to sustainable investment and investor behaviour. These will be complemented by guided discussions, a small survey about green preferences, and case-based analysis to foster critical thinking and comparative evaluation of different investor perspectives. A role-play exercise centred on the ENI case study will provide students with practical experience in applying theoretical insights to real-world investment decision-making contexts.

 

DAY-BY-DAY PROGRAM

N° Topics Instructor
Lesson 1 Introduction to sustainability in the context of finance; sustainable investment approaches; debates on sustainable investment with a focus on different types of investor. Tanweer Ali
Lesson 2 Students will learn about the green preferences of investors and which investors care the most about sustainable assets. Moreover, students will actively discuss and compare survey evidence from the literature with a small survey filled in by the students themselves. Lastly, we will discuss return expectations of professional investors about sustainable assets with those indicated by students in the survey.    Dominik Walter
Lesson 3 Students will learn how climate risks impact stock prices. The focus of this lession will be on a discussion of potential strategies that enable investors to impact the sustainability of firms. Based on a real-world case (e.g. Eni) students will propose their own strategies on how they can improve the sustainability of firms by their own investment behavior. Dominik Walter
Lesson 4 Case study of Eni as an investment opportunity – students will role play different actors including various investor groups, managers and directors. Tanweer Ali

 

SUGGESTED REFERENCES

Gehrig, C. Et al. Impact Investing: Guidance for Designing Listed Equity Strategies That Generate Real-World Outcomes (2025). CFA Institute.
https://rpc.cfainstitute.org/research/reports/2025/impact-investing
Eni (2024), Annual report. https://www.eni.com/content/dam/enicom/documents/eng/reports/2024/ar-2024/Annual-Report-2024.pdf
UNPRI (2026). The Principles for Responsible Investment. 
https://www.unpri.org/about-PRI/what-principles-for-responsible-investment
International Sustainable Finance Centre (2025). Infographic: Sustainable Finance. https://www.isfc.org/knowledge-hub/infographic
Giglio, Maggiori, Stroebel, Tan, Utkus, and Xu (2025): “Four facts
about ESG beliefs and investor portfolios,” Journal of financial economics, 164.
Anderson and Robinson (2022): “Financial literacy in the age of green investment,” Review of Finance, 26.
Andersen,Chebotarev, Filali-Adib, and Nielsen (2024): “A breath of
change: Can personal exposures drive green preferences,”Indiana University working paper.
Edmans, A., T. Gosling, and D. Jenter (2025): “Sustainable Investing in Practice: Objectives, Constraints, and Limits to Impact,”
Gantchev, N., M. Giannetti, and R. Li (2022): “Does money talk? Divestitures and corporate environmental and social policies,” Review of Finance, 26.