Corporate Finance: Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)

1h 58mIntermediate2022-09-30

Authors

Jim Stice

Professor of Accounting at BYU

Kay Stice

Professor of Accounting at the BYU Marriott School of Management

Course details

Corporations conduct business activities that have an impact on the environment, peoples' lives, and on notions of ethics and transparency. As a result, corporations have a responsibility to both their shareholders and society to explain their actions and to ensure they are reporting their actions accurately. In this course, Jim Stice and Kay Stice use examples from specific companies to help you better understand environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) reporting, as well as investment strategies conducted with ESG in mind. Jim and Kay also detail ESG activities and reporting practices across different industries, including the food industry, financial services, airlines, and oil and gas.

Skills covered

Sustainable Business StrategyPersonal FinanceCorporate FinanceFinance and AccountingProfessional DevelopmentBusiness Analysis and StrategyDeep Dive (X:Y)

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - Holding businesses accountable for their impact

1. An Overview of ESG

02 - What Is ESG
03 - Environmental - A corporation's responsibility for the Earth
04 - Social - A corporation's responsibility to its stakeholders
05 - Governance - A corporation's responsibility to its shareholders

2. Examples of ESG Actions

06 - ESG - What are companies actually doing
07 - Environmental - Carbon emission reduction, carbon capture, and carbon credits
08 - Social - Responsible supply chains
09 - Governance - Diversity, transparency, and independence

3. ESG Reporting

10 - Examples of ESG reporting
11 - Different sets of ESG reporting standards around the world
12 - International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB)
13 - Are ESG disclosures audited by an outside third party

4. ESG Investing

14 - Triodos Bank - Example of an ethical bank
15 - Criteria used to identify companies included in ESG mutual fund portfolios
16 - ESG investing using a robo-advisor
17 - The long history of microlending
18 - Greenwashing - Unfairly creating a positive ESG reputation

5. ESG Industry Examples

19 - ESG activities and reporting in the mining industry
20 - ESG activities and reporting in the retail industry
21 - ESG activities and reporting in the food industry
22 - ESG activities and reporting in the financial services industry
23 - ESG activities and reporting in the airline industry
24 - ESG activities and reporting in the oil and gas industry

Conclusion

25 - Personal lessons from companies' ESG initiatives