In this episode, I talk to Christine Chow about active ownership. Christine explains what it is, its dos and dont's, and what investors can bring to the table that companies do not know yet. We explore the tension that the best kind of active ownership is the most difficult to make visible, come up with an idea for professional certification, and Christine explains that being good at engaging is like being good at riding a horse.

Did you know that most large European corporations compensate executives for reaching ESG targets? Is that a good thing, and how should this be done?I discuss these fascinating questions with Tom Gosling, perhaps the world's most experienced expert regarding ESG compensation. I learned a lot in this episode! Some (but not all) of my favorite insights:Even if ESG targets contribute to long-term shareholder value, it can make sense to incentivize middle managers on ESG because they are usually incentivized on annual targets.ESG incentives can work when they are aligned with overall strategy, focus on one central ESG issue, and are monitored by a knowledgeable anchor investorThere is no way to fix the economic incentives given by the market and regulation with managerial incentives.Tom has written about this topic a lot, as you can see on his homepage. Here are some direct links to documents mentioned during the podcast:Paying for net zero assesses the quality of climate targets in large European companies. Spoiler alert: it’s not great.Paying well by paying for good is a report produced in collaboration with PwC looking at whether executive pay should be linked to ESG targets, and if so how. The follow-up paper Paying for good for all looks at practice and attitudes globally and extends the analysis to consider alignment of broader company-wide reward strategy with ESG.Executive Pay and ESG Performance is an excellent summary of the first report in blog format.And here two of the recent papers that Tom mentions:Say on ESG: The Adoption of Say-on-Pay Laws, ESG Contracting, and Firm ESG PerformanceExecutive Compensation Tied to ESG Performance: International Evidence

I talk with Per Einar Ellefsen, CEO and founder of Amundsen IM, a fund that specializes in the European primary equity market. We have a long conversation about the role of ESG factors in the IPO process, from the angle of risk assessment, investment performance, and impact. Along the way, we talk about a lot of interesting companies: Azelis, Verallia, Visma, Eurogroup Laminations, and EDP Renewables. https://amundsen-im.com

In this episode, Stephanie and I delve into sustainability-linked bonds (SLBs) to explore their potential benefits and risks. SLBs have grown to a USD 280 billion market and represent an exciting alternative to green bonds in the sustainable debt market. When issuing an SLB, companies pledge to reach a sustainability performance target as part of the contract. If the company does not reach the target, the bond investors receive an additional “step-up” coupon. We analyze the example of a recent Air France KLM issue. One of Stephanie’s key points is that market pricing should reveal which SLBs have ambitious targets. Here are a few links if you want to follow up on some of the points we cover.Anthropocene Fixed Income Institute Research on SLBsSecond party opinion on Air France-KLM SLB 

In this episode, I talk to Jan Anton van Zanten, a sustainable investing expert at Robeco. We discuss Robeco's open-source SDG scores, a unique approach to measuring companies' sustainability performance. We also delve into the importance of understanding the impact of companies on society and the environment, and how engaging with companies can drive positive change. Finally, we touch on Robeco's decision to make their data open source and how academics and others can benefit from that.Link to Anton’s paperIf you have any feedback, please write to, I would love to hear from you: isf-podcast@unisg.ch

In this episode, I talk with Philipp Aeby, founder and CEO of RepRisk, an ESG data provider. We discuss how innovations in artificial intelligence have changed the way RepRisk processes data. We then move on to the role of transparency, how it can help to improve business conduct globally, as well as about the transparency of RepRisk’s own data generating process.Links to some of the things we talk abouthttps://www.reprisk.com/research-lab For questions or feedback write to isf-podcast@unisg.ch

I ask Harald Walkate why he thinks blended finance is like music. Harald knows about finance, he has 25 years of experience, having worked at Natixis Investment Managers and Aegon Asset Management. He also knows about music, he plays the piano really well. Harald explains how blended finance works, and how it transforms the idea of "sustainable finance" into "financing sustainability". Along the way, we talk about wind turbines in Mali, Milton Friedman, how to access deep pockets, and scoring impact points. As a bonus, you can listen to one of Harald’s recent recordings.For those looking for more information, some links to the things we talk about: The Climate Investor 1 Fund Link to the track and Harald’s Music on Spotify You can find the 6 articles in the “Music is Like Blended Finance” series that we discuss in the podcast on the website of Route17, the blended finance advisory firm that Harald is a founding partner of: https://route17.world/thought-leadership/ For questions or feedback write to isf-podcast@unisg.ch

Sustainable Finance has become an important phenomenon in financial markets but is still a new field. That means, there are new things happening every day. It is important to keep innovating in this field, and to critically evaluate what is going on. In this podcast, Julian Kölbel discusses ideas in sustainable finance. New ideas, good ideas, even dangerous ideas. He invites guests who are doing something novel, something interesting, something different that is worth discussing. His goal is to learn from them, to connect their ideas to academic insights, and contribute to the future development of the field of sustainable finance.Julian Kölbel works as an Assistant Professor in Sustainable Finance at the Center for Financial Services Innovation at the University of St.Gallen (FSI-HSG). For questions or feedback write to isf-podcast@unisg.ch