• Migration
    SRI has potential to complement laws
    ... regulations and taxes in promoting ESG behavior
    Because firms with a negative ESG profile risk an increased cost of equity and debt capital due to ‘exclusionary’ SRI practices of lending and investing institutions, they may be influenced to internalize better ESG practices.
  • spotlight image image
    How the financial crisis changed
    ... clean-tech investment preferences
    Did the Financial Crisis have an impact on the preferred renewable energy investment policies of private equity investors?
  • Magnifying glass on money
    While CSR is good for firm value, ‘sin’ is bad
    Better CSR = lower cost of equity capital
    A team of North American scholars have determined that firms with strong CSR scores enjoy consistently lower costs of capital financing than firms with weaker CSR track records
    
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Green leases can help fully utilize the sustainable potential of real estate Image of an office space
May 15, 2012|Practitioners -
To fully utilize the sustainable potential of real estate, owners and tenants should agree on the distribution of costs and risks in a so-called green lease contract. This is the recommendation of the Dutch Platform Sustainable Housing (Platform Duurzame Huisvesting), which will further develop the ‘Guideline Green Lease’ by order of the Dutch government1. The use of a green lease can solve the problem of ‘split incentive’ between the tenant and the building’s owner. When they agree on lease terms that share the benefits of lower utility bills, the landlord is more likely to invest in energy-efficient building upgrades.
How the financial crisis changed clean-tech investment preferences Windmill blades are unloaded from cargo ship
May 9, 2012|Research -
Did the Financial Crisis have an impact on the preferred renewable energy investment policies of private equity investors? In their paper titled ‘Did the Financial Crisis lead to Changes in Private Equity Investor Preferences Regarding Renewable Energy and Climate Policies?’, researchers Daan Hofman and Ronald Huisman of the Erasmus School of Economics revisited a pre-Crisis study of the preferences of clean-tech venture capital and private equity investors regarding renewable energy and climate policies. Within four years — from the original team’s 2007 survey to Hofman and Huisman’s 2011 survey — they found that the popularity of trade based policies, such as emissions trading, significantly decreased. The only policy which popularity increased was governments setting technology performance standards.
The dilemma of the EU carbon market: can policy-makers fix what is broken?
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Portret of Simone Ruiz
May 7, 2012|Interview -
In this video Simone Ruiz, European Policy Director at the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) discusses the ‘set aside’ from the position of the IETA, which represents a wide variety of stakeholders with conflicting needs. ‘Our position is a bit mixed,’ she says. Long- term solutions are what the IETA seeks, but ‘if you cannot wait, then remove a certain amount of allowances, but only do so in an objective, transparent, and predictable manner, and let us know what will happen with these allowances at the end of the day,’ she says.
‘Dramatic benefits’ from integrating SRI
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Portret of Matthew Kiernan
May 2, 2012|Interview -
Matthew Kiernan is Founder and Chief Executive of Inflection Point Capital Management, Founder of Innovest Strategic Value Advisors, and a an expert in sustainable investment. In this video interview, Dr. Kiernan discusses the importance of integrating issues of sustainability in investment — and why this investment space continues to face slow growth. “One of the misconceptions in this space has been that there is not a performance benefit to be had from integrating sustainability and financial performance,” he says. “Most investment professionals don’t believe in their guts that there are performance benefits to be had.”
Giving impact investment a solid foundation of knowledge, and a boost
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Portret of Luther Ragin
Apr 26, 2012|Interview -
In this video interview Luther Ragin, Jr., CEO of the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) discusses how the non-profit organization is working to improve this crucial, but still nascent, area of finance. In this new area of practice, “market mechanisms have not fully evolved and developed and there is considerable fragmentation and opacity,” he says. To overcome these challenges GIIN’s investor council is sharing knowledge and experience and building a platform of expertise. “We feel there is an important role to play in encouraging better information flow, better research, better organization and mobilization of investors in this area, and the opportunity for impact investors to collaborate to create an effective language around impact investment strategies.”
Editorial Board
Selecting and accepting academic and business insights on this platform.
Portret of Kees Koedijk Kees Koedijk
Professor of Financial Management, Tilburg University and Dean of TiSEM

Portret of Piet Eichholtz Piet Eichholtz
Professor of Real Estate Finance, Maastricht University

Portret of Dirk Brounen Dirk Brounen
Professor of Real Estate, Tilburg University

Portret of Lloyd Kurtz Lloyd Kurtz
Lecturer of social investing, Haas School of Business

Portret of Bernd Jan Sikken Bernd Jan Sikken
Program Director Finance & Sustainability, Duisenberg school of finance
Editors
Affiliated with our partner organizations and contribute with academic and business insights.
Portret of Jeroen Derwall Jeroen Derwall
Assistant Professor, Tilburg University

Portret of Reyer Gerlagh Reyer Gerlagh
Professor of Environmental Economics, Tilburg University

Portret of Lars Hassel Lars Hassel
Professor of Accounting and Auditing, Umeå University

Portret of Jenke ter Horst Jenke ter Horst
Professor of Portfolio Management, Tilburg University

Portret of Ronald Huisman Ronald Huisman
Associate Professor, Erasmus School of Economics
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