Sustainable & ESG Investing: Labels, Evidence and Greenwashing
Learn how ESG ratings, screens, climate benchmarks, EU fund labels and the EU taxonomy actually work, so you can read a sustainable fund's documents critically and judge for yourself whether it matches what you want.
Self-study course Self-study course: written lessons, videos and downloadable materials for independent learning. There is no supervision, assessment, individual feedback or tutoring. Self-check quizzes are evaluated automatically in your browser — we do not see your results.
All 12 lessons free
Before you start
- Basic knowledge of funds and ETFs (course "ETFs, Funds & Long-Term Investing")
- Comfort with percentages and weighted averages
- Interest in reading fund documents such as the KID and prospectus
What you will be able to do
- Distinguish ESG integration, exclusion, best-in-class, impact and ethical investing and name what each approach promises
- Explain how MSCI, Sustainalytics and ISS build ESG scores and why their ratings for the same company differ
- Apply revenue-threshold and norms-based screens to a hypothetical index and calculate the weight that is removed
- Compare ESG Leaders, SRI, Paris-Aligned and Climate Transition Benchmark rules with concrete numbers
- Read SFDR Article 6, 8 and 9 disclosures, principal adverse impact indicators and the ESMA fund-naming rules correctly
- Calculate a fund's taxonomy-alignment percentage and explain the gas and nuclear criteria
Lessons in this course
ESG, SRI, Impact and Ethical Investing: Definitions, Materiality and What Each Approach Promises
Separate the five main sustainable-investing approaches, understand financial versus double materiality, and test what a fund actually promises.
ESG Ratings: How MSCI, Sustainalytics and ISS Build Scores and Why They Disagree
Follow a rating from raw data to a letter grade, see how industry-relative grading works, and understand why the big agencies rate the same company differently.
Exclusion and Norms-Based Screening: Controversial Weapons, Thermal-Coal Thresholds and UN Global Compact Violations
Apply the three standard screens with real threshold logic and calculate how much of a hypothetical index each screen removes.
Best-in-Class, Tilting and Climate Benchmarks: ESG Leaders, SRI, Paris-Aligned and Climate Transition Rules
Compare the construction rules of MSCI ESG Leaders and SRI indices with the EU Paris-Aligned and Climate Transition Benchmarks, and calculate a decarbonisation trajectory.
SFDR Article 6, 8 and 9: What the Labels Mean, Principal Adverse Impact Indicators and the ESMA Fund-Naming Rules
Read SFDR disclosures correctly, calculate a principal adverse impact indicator, and apply the ESMA 80% naming test to a fund.
The EU Taxonomy: Six Objectives, Technical Screening Criteria, Alignment Percentages and the Gas and Nuclear Debate
Understand how an activity becomes taxonomy-aligned, calculate a fund's alignment percentage, and apply the gas and nuclear criteria to a hypothetical plant.
Detecting Greenwashing: Portfolio Look-Through, Holdings versus Marketing and the DWS Case
Learn to compare what a fund says with what it actually holds, calculate simple look-through numbers, and use a question list before you buy.
Impact Investing and Measuring Impact: Additionality, Theory of Change and the Listed-Equity Debate
Understand what separates impact investing from ESG investing, test a claim with the additionality question, and build a simple theory of change with measurable outputs and outcomes.
Green, Social and Sustainability-Linked Bonds: Use of Proceeds, the Greenium, Step-Up Coupons and the EU Green Bond Standard
Tell use-of-proceeds bonds from sustainability-linked bonds, calculate what a greenium and a coupon step-up mean in euros, and know the main rules of the EU Green Bond Standard.
Engagement and Voting: Stewardship, Proxy Voting, Shareholder Resolutions and Divestment versus Engagement
See how voting and engagement actually work for a fund investor, what the Engine No. 1 case shows, and what the evidence says about divestment compared with engagement.
Performance Evidence: Meta-Studies, Tracking Error and Sector Bets of ESG Indices, Costs and Climate Risk as Financial Risk
Read the research on ESG and returns without hype, decompose an ESG index's relative return into sector bets, calculate tracking error and the cost of higher fees, and understand transition and physical climate risk.
A Written Sustainable Investment Policy: Exclusions, Label Requirements and a Look-Through Checklist
Write a one-page sustainable investment policy with numeric exclusion thresholds, minimum label requirements, a look-through checklist and a yearly review, and test it on a sample portfolio.
Alternative Investments: Private Markets, Hedge Funds and Collectibles
After this course, continue with "Alternative Investments: Private Markets, Hedge Funds and Collectibles" to learn how less liquid asset classes are structured, priced and checked.
View course outline