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Best resources to learnESG & Sustainable Business

Study sheet

ESG integrates environmental, social and governance factors into business. You will learn reporting frameworks, sustainable finance, corporate climate strategy and the critiques of ESG.

8 resources · · How we curate

🎓Courses(2)

course

Sustainability Consulting

University of Illinois course covering the tools sustainability consultants use, including life cycle analysis, footprinting, ESG reporting and LEED standards. You will finish able to read an LCA report critically and apply life-cycle thinking to a supply chain.

beginner🇬🇧
course

Renewable Energy and Green Building Entrepreneurship

Duke University course on starting ventures in renewable energy and green building, using case studies such as Strata Solar and Cherokee Investment Partners. Learners identify market opportunities, analyse successful firms, apply the Business Model Canvas and prepare to approach investors.

beginner🇬🇧

📚Books(1)

bookPaid

Grow the Pie: How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit (Updated Edition)

A book-length, evidence-led argument that responsible business creates value for shareholders and society together, rather than splitting a fixed pie between them. It covers stewardship, executive pay, buybacks and stakeholder metrics, with attention to the quality of the evidence.

intermediate🇬🇧

🌐Websites(3)

website

Sounding good or Doing good? A Skeptical Look at ESG

A valuation professor's sceptical case against ESG as it is sold. He separates three questions: does ESG change firm value, do markets price it, and does society gain? He weighs the evidence on each and links a companion video and a paper with Bradford Cornell.

intermediate🇬🇧
website

IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures (ISSB Standards Navigator)

The ISSB's official page for IFRS S2, the global baseline for climate-related financial disclosure, alongside its companion IFRS S1 on general requirements. It covers governance, strategy, risk management, metrics and targets, the effective date, amendment history and access to the full standard text.

advanced🇬🇧
website

GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard (Revised Edition)

The standard that defines how companies build a greenhouse gas inventory. It covers organizational and operational boundaries, Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, base-year recalculation and reporting requirements. It is free to download, and ISSB, CSRD and SBTi all build on it. Carbon accounting sits under almost every climate-related ESG disclosure, and this is where the rules come from.

intermediate🇬🇧

📄Papers(2)

paper

The End of ESG

A short, open-access Financial Management essay (2023). Edmans argues ESG is both important and nothing special: long-term material factors belong in ordinary investing and management. He critiques ESG labels, ratings and exclusion as a separate category, but not ESG itself. It gives a balanced counterweight to Damodaran: a sympathetic insider arguing that ESG should be absorbed into ordinary investing.

intermediate🇬🇧
paper

Aggregate Confusion: The Divergence of ESG Ratings

An open-access Review of Finance study comparing ratings from six major ESG raters, including MSCI, Sustainalytics and Refinitiv. It shows how little they agree and splits the disagreement into measurement (56%), scope (38%) and weight (6%).

advanced🇬🇧
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Frequently Asked Questions

What are the best free resources to learn ESG & Sustainable Business?

Dantes has curated 8 resources for ESG & Sustainable Business, including 1 books, 2 courses, 3 websites, 2 papers. All resources are hand-picked for quality — no algorithmic filler. Browse the full list above to find the format that works best for you.

Is ESG & Sustainable Business hard to learn?

ESG & Sustainable Business is approachable at the beginner level — there are resources here specifically for those starting from scratch. As you progress, intermediate and advanced material is also available to take your skills further.

What types of ESG & Sustainable Business learning resources are available on Dantes?

For ESG & Sustainable Business, Dantes has curated 1 books, 2 courses, 3 websites, 2 papers. Each resource type serves a different learning style: videos and YouTube for visual learners, books for depth, courses for structured progression, and websites for quick reference.

How does Dantes select ESG & Sustainable Business resources?

Dantes is an algorithm-free learning directory. Resources are hand-curated based on quality, accuracy, and usefulness — not engagement metrics or paid placements. The goal is to surface the best learning material for ESG & Sustainable Business, whether it's a free YouTube series, a classic textbook, or an open courseware from a top university.

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