06/10/2026
Does sustainability change what a company earns — and what its capital costs?
Ten years ago that was a niche question. Today it matters across many finance jobs: the analyst who has to explain why a company's ESG rating just dropped, the consultant who has to put a number on a decarbonisation plan, the credit officer who has to decide whether a carbon-heavy borrower deserves a higher spread. Foundations of Sustainable Finance teaches you how to answer it with evidence instead of opinion.
What you will actually learn
How ESG ratings are built, why two agencies can rate the same company very differently, and which sustainability issues matter financially. Whether sustainable strategies lift revenues and margins or only add cost. Why investors buy responsible funds, whether those funds outperform, and what that does to a firm's cost of equity. And on the debt side: how green bonds work, how banks price carbon risk, and what a scandal does to a company's borrowing costs overnight.
All of it built on published research rather than textbook summaries, with guest lectures from sustainable finance practice, method tutorials on regression and asset pricing, and a team case study in which you take apart the ESG rating of a real listed European company and design your own initiative for it.
Fits with you?
You want to see what the finance you already know does once sustainability enters the picture. This is an ESG course, but it runs on the full toolkit — DCF, WACC, CAPM, bond pricing, factor models, regression.
You like working with real company data and want to be able to defend a number, not just quote one.
You are thinking about a bachelor thesis in finance or a master in finance, and want to be comfortable reading empirical papers and handling asset pricing models before you get there.
Your future
ESG and equity research, asset management, sustainable finance teams at banks.
Sustainability advisory and assurance, strategy consulting.
Corporate finance, investor relations and sustainability roles inside listed companies.
Good to know
Bachelor elective, taught in English.
12 October – 27 November 2026 · Group sign-up by 19 October · Written exam mid-December
