CFA Sustainable Investing Certificate Prep Course

Present global esg investing trends using gca 2020 data, including 35.3 trillion in major markets and esg integration as the leading strategy.

Identify the main drivers of ESG integration—investor demand, intergenerational wealth transfer, regulation and policy, public awareness, and data advances—and outline stakeholder roles and integration barriers.

Asset owners drive ESG integration through investment mandates and allocation strategies, setting guidelines, engaging stakeholders, and leveraging data to promote sustainable, long-term financial and societal impact.

Asset managers drive esg integration by selecting securities and engaging investee companies to improve esg performance, while fund promoters and financial services enable sustainable investing through data and standards.

Regulators enforce ESG policies with transparent disclosures to sustain investor confidence and market integrity, while governments, investees, civil society, and academia advance responsible investment and ESG integration.

Explore how environmental factors drive ESG; examine climate change, mitigation, and adaptation, and how policies like the European Green Deal and Tcfd steer sustainable finance toward opportunities and risk management.

Examine pressures on natural resources, freshwater, biodiversity, land use, forestry, and marine resources, and learn sustainable management, circular economy, and pollution control practices to mitigate scarcity and risks.

Examine the systemic link between business activities and environmental issues, highlighting climate and transition risks, supply chain transparency, carbon footprinting, and climate scenario analysis for resilient growth.

Explore mega trends like climate change, technological innovation, and urbanization, and learn how businesses adapt with renewable energy, digital transformation, and smart infrastructure amid regulatory changes to stay competitive.

Identify material environmental factors that affect operations and financial performance, and apply GRI, SASB, and TCFD frameworks with stakeholder engagement and scenario analysis to guide strategy.

Assess nature-related risks and opportunities by evaluating biodiversity, ecosystem services, natural capital, and impact assessment; disclose findings and integrate them into decision making to improve resilience and sustainable value.

Integrate environmental factors into financial modeling and ratio analysis, incorporating environmental metrics to align sustainability goals, inform investment decisions, and strengthen risk assessment and long-term value creation.

Explore how climate change creates opportunities in clean technologies and renewable energy. Leverage circular economy practices, ESG criteria, and green financing to boost brand value and long-term growth.

Investors increasingly demand best-in-class social performance, from occupational health and safety to local community impact. Explore gender equality funds and open stakeholder engagement as value drivers.

Explore social environmental megatrends shaping governments, societies and economies, including globalization, automation and AI, inequality, digital disruption, changes in work and education, demographics, urbanization, and individual rights.

Identify the most material social factors by industry and assess exposure. Apply the Sasb framework to guide financial material topics and categorize supply chain impacts on internal and external stakeholders.

Examine how social factors push firms to engage communities and secure free, prior and informed consent on ancestral lands, while addressing conflict minerals, consumer protection, product liability, and sdg-aligned responsibilities.

Identify material social factors by analyzing geography and industry, company exposure through sector, countries, and supplier locations, and regulatory frameworks shaping investors' assessment of social risks and opportunities.

Assess how social factors and trends impact investee companies across sectors, considering human rights, health and safety risks, and double materiality reporting under OECD due diligence and UN guiding principles.

Explore how corporate governance structures, board accountability, and incentive alignment address the agency problem, with emphasis on independence, transparency, ESG reporting, and key committees driving long term prosperity.

Examine formal corporate governance frameworks that shape audit committees, independent boards, and separation of chair and ceo roles, with global comply or explain models and lessons from major scandals.

Engage in active dialogue between companies and investors to strengthen board accountability and decision making, and protect minority shareholders through pre-emption rights, disclosure rules, and related party safeguards.

Compare global governance models—from two-tier supervisory boards to single-tier boards—and align investor expectations with OECD best practices.

Explore how independent audits provide assurance on financial statements and ESG reports, through sampling and enhanced auditor reports, strengthening governance, risk management, and corporate transparency.

Governance remains the primary ESG factor guiding investment analysts. Board quality, governance structures, and board diversity drive valuation, risk assessment, and ongoing engagement through annual general meetings and votes.

Explore the UK stewardship code and global stewardship standards, including public disclosures, governance, conflict management, and engagement, to deliver tangible outcomes for long-term institutional investing and ESG integration.

Explore how investor engagement ranges from internal governance teams to stewardship providers and proxy voting advisory firms, enabling informed voting and collaborative engagements via PRI.

Set clear engagement objectives aligned with governance and plan strategic, impact-focused investment dialogue. Execute both individual and collaborative engagements with disciplined milestones to drive meaningful corporate change.

Explore how voting drives stewardship, linking shareholding to strategic engagement, proxies, and AGM participation. Emphasize escalation, collective engagement, and climate-aligned actions under the Paris Agreement.

Stewardship codes apply across asset classes, guiding ESG engagement from equities to private equity. Engagement targets policy, ESG practices, and governance across debt, infrastructure, and real estate.

Explore qualitative and quantitative ESG integration, from management judgments on net zero commitments and reporting quality to data such as emissions and board diversity, and learn how investors blend approaches.

Analyze how environmental regulations and ESG opportunities influence listed equity valuations by adjusting cash flows, discount rates, terminal growth, and valuation multiples in DCF.

Explore how fixed income investors integrate ESG factors into credit risk assessment from issuer to portfolio, across sovereign, corporate, and municipal bonds, and the role of ratings and data.

Explore ESG integration in real estate and private markets, using Breeam and Gresb benchmarks, reporting ESG data, KPIs, energy efficiency, and governance throughout deal sourcing to exit.

Explore how ESG integration databases and software categorize providers by business model, compare data, ratings, screening tools, governance services, and advisory offerings, plus selection considerations.

Examine ESG fund and manager evaluations using Morningstar and Mercer ratings, and how ESG indexes from Footsie's, Russell, and MSCI serve benchmarks, while noting methodology and data limitations.

Integrate ESG into strategic asset allocation to manage climate risks and portfolio diversification through MVO, TPA, Da, LDI, and regime switching, with scenario analysis under Paris Agreement paths.

Explore how ESG criteria guide asset manager selection through rigorous due diligence, combining qualitative and quantitative assessments of policy presence, initiative participation, and scoring frameworks for depth in investment strategies.

Explore how ESG integration at the portfolio level blends top-down analytics with comprehensive ESG analysis, using fundamental and quantitative data to guide asset allocation, risk management, and performance attribution.

Assess how fundamental analysts estimate intrinsic value, conduct credit analysis, and anticipate valuation adjustments through rerating or derating. Integrate ESG factors, risk, and catalysts into portfolio and research.

Quantify ESG risks within portfolio management by attributing performance to region and sector factors. Examine whether ESG signals add alpha independently, given correlations with value, quality, and size.

Explore universal, conduct related, faith based, and idiosyncratic ESG exclusions and how asset owners implement them, including sector-wide and instrument limitations across currencies, derivatives, and sovereign debt.

Explore how ESG integration varies across fixed income, examine Bluebay's issuer- and bond-level ESG scoring, and note the rise of green and sustainability-linked bonds, with $600 billion issued in 2022.

Explore how esg integration varies across fixed income sectors and how Bluebay Asset Management's issuer and bond esg scores evaluate risks and opportunities in corporate debt and green bonds.

Investigate ESG screening across listed and private equity, from PRI reporting and sector-neutral long/short strategies to carbon intensity metrics, NLP sentiment, and pre-deal governance-focused evaluations.

Explore how ESG integration mitigates environmental, social, and governance risks in portfolios and can drive alpha, while addressing challenges in quantifying its impact with traditional attribution models.

Learn how ESG factors are embedded in quantitative strategies via tilts and algorithms. Explore data gaps and methods like rescaling to 100% or Bayesian inference for accurate ESG exposure reporting.

Explore ESG screening approaches including negative, positive, and norms-based (UN Global Compact), and implement a pri-guided process with objectives, oversight, monitoring, and transparent reporting across listed and unlisted assets.

Thematic investing targets sustainability aligned themes such as clean energy, water, and healthcare through active and passive strategies to diversify portfolios and support the sustainable development goals.

Explore alignment and accountability to mitigate agency problems between CEOs and money managers. Translate client ESG beliefs into mandates via RFPs and ongoing monitoring.

Asset owners translate investment philosophy into ESG mandates that guide strategic asset allocation, while fund managers integrate environmental, social, and governance factors into policies and disclose exposures to investors.

Explore how the IGN framework guides ESG-aware investment mandates, emphasizing active stewardship, engagement, voting, and rigorous reporting to align managers with asset owners' policies and ESG goals.

Explore greenwashing across finance and industry, from misleading environmental claims to regulatory responses, and learn how transparent, verifiable ESG practices bolster trust and sustainable investment.

Tailor esg investment strategies to client expectations by aligning institutional mandates and side letters with long-term sustainability, while retail focus on exclusions and impact investing is supported by reporting.

Balance annual reviews with long term principles under the IGN model mandate and Brunel accord by monitoring portfolio turnover, governance, risk, and ESG integration, while probing changes in management practices.

Explore how investment managers measure and report ESG integration, emphasizing outcome-focused disclosures, real-world impacts, benchmarking with ESG data, and transparent stewardship and engagement practices.