Course 2025-2026 a.y.

The course begins by exploring how companies reflect climate, social, and regulatory risks in their accounting judgments and disclosures. It then analyzes the concept of financial materiality as defined by ISSB standards, along with the notions of sustainability reporting boundaries and the EU Taxonomy. Building on this foundation, you will deepen your understanding of how sustainability is communicated through major frameworks such as GRI, TCFD, Integrated Reporting, and ESRS, emphasizing how disclosure choices affect transparency and overall reporting quality.

A focus on double materiality will illustrate how financial and impact perspectives can be integrated and how stakeholder engagement is essential for defining not only the content of reports but also ESG-related strategy and risk management. You will then learn to design and interpret ESG performance measurement systems, developing familiarity with non-financial KPIs and understanding how sustainability measures can be embedded within performance, incentive, and control systems.

Finally, the course will examine gender pay gap disclosures, institutional investors’ expectations, and ESG rating agency methodologies, analyzing their implications for disclosure practices and for the alignment between corporate strategy, managerial behavior, and accountability.

1. Explain how corporate reporting integrates financial and non-financial information to support long-term value creation and the triple bottom line.
2. Identify IFRS standards and accounting areas where sustainability-related issues influence financial reporting (e.g., impairment, provisions, asset valuation).
3. Distinguish between financial materiality and double materiality, and interpret how these concepts are applied in ISSB, ESRS, and other relevant international frameworks.
4. Describe reporting boundaries in sustainability reporting and the purpose and scope of the EU Taxonomy.
5. Compare major sustainability reporting frameworks (e.g. GRI, TCFD, Integrated Reporting, ESRS) and assess their implications for communication quality.
6. Recognize key environmental, social, and governance performance indicators and understand their relevance to strategic, operational, and financial performance.
7. Understand how disclosure practices, such as gender pay gap, and investor expectations as well as ESG ratings affect corporate accountability and behavior.

1. Analyze how sustainability factors and risks are reflected in financial statements and notes.
2. Interpret how regulatory requirements (EU Taxonomy, ISSB, ESRS) influence corporate reporting practices.
3. Assess the financial materiality of ESG topics using international reporting standards and company examples.
4. Evaluate the quality and completeness of corporate sustainability disclosures across different frameworks.
5. Apply the concept of double materiality to integrate financial and impact perspectives into corporate reporting and control systems.
6. Design a set of ESG KPIs linked to environmental, social, and governance performance drivers.
7. Integrate sustainability indicators into internal performance measurement, incentive, and control systems (e.g., Sustainability Balanced Scorecard).
8. Use ESG performance information to support decision-making, stakeholder communication, and investor dialogue.

• Lectures
• Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
• Practical Exercises
• Collaborative Works / Assignments

The learning experience in this course combines traditional lectures with a variety of interactive methods, including case discussions, group work, presentations, and sessions with guest speakers. Real-life examples and case studies are used to illustrate that complex business and reporting challenges rarely have a single correct answer. Through these exercises, you will learn to identify, analyze, and address multifaceted, open-ended problems from multiple perspectives.

Besides, to actively participate, you will need to use your communication and interpersonal skills to present your views and defend your evaluations and recommendations. Finally, for assignment preparation, you will work in teams to search for relevant information, analyze problems, and prepare and present reports.

All these activities should thus be seen as important preparation for your career. 

The final grade for the course will be determined as follows:

Collaborative assignment: 40% of the final grade (group grade).

Written individual exam: 

if General exam = 60% of the final grade (individual grade)

if Partial exams = 30% + 30% (individual grade)

For non-attending students the final grade will be entirely based on the written exam.

Slides, cases, readings, and some additional materials (e.g., exercises) will be provided during the course on the course website.