Impact, Value, and the Materiality of Sustainability
Start date:
Thursday 12 Feb 2026
Duration:
9 weeks, final session Thursday 9 April 2026.
Application deadline
23 January 2026
Location
Online
Cost
$7,000 USD
Programme Content
This programme brings together leaders from across the investment and corporate sectors to explore the evolving nature of responsible investment, the materiality of sustainability factors, and how investors and companies can engage with these issues to preserve and create long-term value.
In a unique blend of theory and practice, participants will master pivotal areas, including climate risk governance, competitive sustainability strategies, geopolitical scenario planning, and data analytics, while benefiting from Wharton Executive Education’s proven methodologies and teaching practices. Through dialogue with leading academics and collaboration with peers, executives will learn how to create long-term sustainable value while achieving stakeholder harmony and serving as stewards for environmental and societal change. Leaders will leave feeling empowered to drive positive change in their organisation, in an increasingly complex and volatile environment.
“ Responsible investment is a professional discipline that empowers investors with the insights and frameworks needed to lead in a complex financial landscape. This partnership with PRI reflects our shared belief that long-term value creation depends on understanding and managing systemic risks. ”
Witold Henisz, PhD
Academic Director
At the end of the programme, learners will:
This course is a 9-week live online programme complemented with asynchronous materials.
The programme consists of a mixture of engaging live online sessions. Learners will be expected to complete between 1-2 hours of independent study outside of this time, assigned to them by the course leaders.
Within the live sessions, participants will enjoy a mixture of leading academic speakers, panels with industry experts, interactive exercises and scenario analyses.
- ESG integration
- History of the movement
- ESG backlash
- Challenges and opportunities of creating a purpose-driven company
- Decisions, employee engagement, and stakeholder management
- Relationship between purpose, financial performance, and corporate strategy
- Role of governance in addressing social and political challenges
- ESG framework integration for boards
- Responding to non-market risk
- Responsible political engagement and aligned social and political strategy
- Why climate change is important to business leaders
- Smooth transition to a net zero economy
- Climate-related financial disclosure regimes globally
- Creating competitive advantage through sustainability efforts
- Potential geopolitical scenarios for 2030 and implication for investors, senior leaders and strategists
- Develop your own geostrategy
- Corporate strategies to reduce exposure to climate risk
- Carbon markets
- Climate risk strategy in energy, transportation and real estate sectors
- How and where good and gold may not live well together
- Investment style and investor perspective
- Measurement tools and strategies
- Latest trends in shareholder and stakeholder activism
- Patterns in types of issues demanded in activist campaigns
- Tactics for response to activism and activist engagement
This course is designed for:
Meet the Faculty
Witold Henisz, PhD
Academic Director
Vice Dean and Faculty Director, Impact, Value, and Sustainable Business Initiative; Deloitte & Touche Professor of Management in Honor of Russell E. Palmer, former Managing Partner
Political and social risk management; project management; ESG integration; stakeholder engagement
Christopher Geczy, PhD
Adjunct Professor of Finance; Academic Director, Wharton Wealth Management Initiative; Academic Director, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Center for Quantitative Financial Research, The Wharton School
Emilie Feldman, PhD
Michael L. Tarnopol Professor; Professor of Management, The Wharton School
Corporate governance, corporate strategy, diversification, divestitures, firm scope, spinoffs, mergers and acquisitions
Claudine Gartenberg, PhD
Associate Professor of Management, The Wharton School
Corporate strategy; organizational strategy; firm scope; motivation; corporate governance; compensation and pay inequality; corporate purpose
Mary-Hunter McDonnell, JD, PhD
Bantwal Family Goldman Sachs Presidential Associate Professor; Associate Professor of Management, The Wharton School
Organizational theory (political sociology, institutional theory); nonmarket strategy; corporate governance; corporate misconduct and punishment
Mirko Heinle, PhD
Professor of Accounting, The Wharton School
Theoretical research in financial and managerial accounting
Nicolaj Siggelkow, PhD
David M. Knott Professor; Professor of Management; Co-Director, Mack Institute for Innovation Management, The Wharton School
Competitive strategy, firms as systems of interconnected choices
Sarah Light, JD
Professor of Legal Studies & Business Ethics; Faculty Co-Director, Wharton Climate Center