Sustainable Finance and Technology: Making the Connection

This chapter discusses how sustainable finance and technology are interrelated. We start by showing the historical significance of three key concepts for finance: technology, digitalization, and data. On the basis of this, we outline three key perspectives that describe the relationship between ESG and technology: (1) ESG and technology (when technological changes are disrupting companies’ business models and hence influence investors’ valuation), (2) ESG through technology (when technological changes alter the way investors collect and analyze data), and (3) ESG as technology (when technological issues turn themselves into ESG risks and opportunities). We also caution that to fully grasp the relationship between ESG and technology, we also need to understand the changing epistemological foundations of sustainable finance in the digitalized age. We close by outlining how corporations can show leadership for ESG in a technologized world.