Sustainable

DRAFT

Finance and
Instructors:

Namrata Rana and Utkarsh Majumdar

Business

Who should register for this Practically, anyone can register for this course. The course helps you imbibe an
course? understanding of how sustainability is impacting the world of finance and
business. The course will help your career by:

1. Understanding the new techniques of sustainable finance


2. With India ratifying the Paris treaty a large number of companies need trained
manpower to handle sustainability. In addition, India has made CSR mandatory
which has added another dimension to the need for trained resources, Specialist
roles in large companies have opened up, so have roles in consulting firms. 

3. The course can be a useful addition to those who specialize in finance and
sustainability as it takes both the disciplines further.





Objectives This course examines changes in finance, corporate disclosures and business
strategy to improve products, profits, and brand equity. The idea of corporations
as simply wealth creating organisations with no obligations to the environment
and society at large is no longer acceptable. We will examine numerous corporate
initiatives that attempt to address these challenges as well as how they are being
evaluated in the public eye.

The context of the course is principally global though the concepts are equally
applicable in the Indian context and are examined during the course.





Pre-requisites The course assumes that you are conversant with basic finance, economics, and
strategy courses. Thus participants will also be thrown into situations of great
ambiguity.





Pedagogy The course will use a mix of lectures, cases, exercises and a project.



Textbook There is no prescribed textbook. However, selected material from various books
will be provided



Articles Articles from leading journals and reports by companies and experts will be
provided.

Namrata Rana and Utkarsh Majumdar Sustainable Finance Course Outline

Evaluation Class Participation 25%

Project 25%

End-term 50%

Total 100%

Project The students (in groups of 3 or 4) will be required to work on a study that looks at
responsible business activities in a particular industry. They will apply the
concepts learnt in class and the reading material to strengthen the quality of their
learning.




Class Participation This is an integral part of the learning process.5% out of 25% will be allocated
towards attendance. Balance 20% will be based on both quality and quantity of
the student.

Namrata Rana and Utkarsh Majumdar Sustainable Finance Course Outline

Session Plan

Ses Topic Reading

sion

1 Trends in the 21st Century and introduction Strategy and Society: The Link
and to Sustainability and CSR
 Between Competitive Advantage and Corporate
2 What are the defining trends that will impact Social Responsibility by

business, society and governance? What will be Michael E. Porter, Mark R. Kramer (HBR)

the new normal? Introduction to Sustainability

and CSR and the Circular Economy
World Economic Forum - the 4th Industrial
revolution

Towards the circular economy volume 4 (Ellen Mc

Arthur Foundation)

3 Creating a responsible business strategy Case: Finolex: Piping agricultural dreams

4 Introduction to Sustainable Finance
 Chapter 1 - Environmental Finance: A Guide to


 Environmental Risk Assessment and Financial
Products by Sonia Labatt and Rodney R. White
5 Sustainability Reporting: Analysing GRI Sustainability reporting guidelines, GRI (https://
reports
www.globalreporting.org/resourcelibrary/G3.1-
Theory
Guidelines-Incl-Technical-Protocol.pdf)

The need for reporting. Introduction to formats Integrated Reporting: elevating value (http://
such as GRI and Triple Bottom Line. www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/EY-
Introduction to Integrated Reporting Integrated-reporting/$FILE/EY-Integrated-
reporting.pdf) E&Y report

John Elkington, Enter the Triple Bottom Line

6 Corporate Sustainability, Materiality
(http://www.johnelkington.com/archive/TBL-
elkington-chapter.pdf)
Materiality in the context of GRI reporting
framework

Report : Global Apparel Companies in India: Can
They Be Socially Responsible?



Transparency and Assurance: minding the
Credibility gap (Journal of Business Ethics)

7 Sustainability Reporting: Analysing GRI Examples of Sustainability reports of various

reports companies.

Application


 GRI reports - Tata Steel, Mahindra and Mahindra

Integrated Reports

8 Analysing Integrated Reporting Case: Natura Cosmeticos, S.A.

Namrata Rana and Utkarsh Majumdar Sustainable Finance Course Outline

9 Sustainable Finance & Impact investing From the Margins to the Mainstream Assessment
of the Impact Investment Sector and
Social Impact Bonds
Opportunities to Engage Mainstream Investors
Dow Jones Sustainability Index
(WEF)

Integrated Reporting


Article : Impact Investing 101: Finance for
humanity



Article : The CSR managers guide to Social
Impact Bonds



Article : Using Social impact bonds for
maximising CSR impact?
10 Social Cost-benefit analysis Chapter 14 Prasanna Chandra, Projects,
Theory Planning, Analysis, Selection, Financing,
Implementation, and Review

Economic Framework for Assessing

Development Impact

Benjamin C. Esty; Carrie Ferman; Frank J. Lysy

11 Social Cost-benefit analysis Case: Nghe An Tate & Lyle Sugar Co. (Vietnam)

Application
Chapter 14 Prasanna Chandra, Projects,
Planning, Analysis, Selection, Financing,
Implementation, and Review
12 Social Return on Investment (SROI)
 Dalmia Bharat Case Study



Article: Guidelines for Social Return on
Investment, California Management Review,
Spring 2014
13 Using real options for investments Strategy as a Portfolio of Real Options by
Timothy Luehrman
14 Valuing Natural Resources Ambuja Case Study

15 Sustainable Banking Case: Morgan Stanley: Positioning To Be The

Sustainability Finance Leader

Yes Bank Sustainability Report

16 Microfinance and its implications Microfinance: An introduction by R Srinivasan and MS
Sriram (http://www.mssriram.in/sites/mssriram.in/files/
microfinance-RT_0.pdf)

17 Microfinance and its implications Case: Krishna Bhima Samruddhi Local Area
Bank (Kbslab): A Decade Review

Namrata Rana and Utkarsh Majumdar Sustainable Finance Course Outline

18 Planning and Implementation Report : Coca Cola Sustainability plan

Budgeting, Implementation, Monitoring &

Impact Assessment
 Report : Environmental Impact Assessment

 General Procedures

‘
Case: Norsk Hydro ASA: Sustainable PVC at
Hydro Polymers?
19 Stakeholder management, Governments, Sustainability and Stakeholder

Regulatory environments and Multinational Management: the Need for New

Corporations Corporate Performance Evaluation and

Reporting Systems (Business strategy and

Environment)
20 Wrap-up and project presentations

Namrata Rana and Utkarsh Majumdar Sustainable Finance Course Outline