A Financial Handbook for Sustainability

In the thirteenth public lecture of this series, Professor Shivaram Rajgopal, Roy Bernard Kester and T.W. Byrnes Professor of Accounting and Auditing, Columbia University delivered the lecture titled, "A Financial Handbook for Sustainability"

This lecture was moderated by Eric Lim, Chief Sustainability Officer, United Overseas Bank.

Many boards and executive teams today are experiencing ESG fatigue, often struggling to see how sustainability initiatives translate into shareholder value. Yet sustainability is not just a compliance exercise—it has direct implications for firm value, risk management, and long-term business performance. While integrated reporting was created to bridge this gap, many reports still fall short, presenting sustainability metrics that are disconnected from financial outcomes.

In this session, participants were introduced to a practical framework that links sustainability performance directly to company risk factors and financial statement line items. This enables organisations to better quantify the financial impact of sustainability-related decisions. Participants also learned how to develop actionable KPIs that connect sustainability performance to measurable business value. In addition, the session showcased AI-powered tools and prompts that can automate this analysis at scale, helping organisations accelerate the adoption of value-driven sustainability reporting and more informed decision-making.