With “Cracking the Sustainability Puzzle,” students get to use sustainability information paired with financial information to gain a more comprehensive perspective, moving away from the purely classical finance perspective that focuses mainly on financial information. Sustainability issues have proven to be significant for investors and corporations, serving as a tool for risk management and a source of growth. Over the last twenty years, an increasing number of companies worldwide have started supplementing their GAAP reports with non-financial reports to address this demand. Investors have raised concerns about the lack of standardization in sustainability reporting, defining it as a key challenge in sustainable finance implementation. The market has been evolving, and to respond to these concerns, we are experiencing a shift from voluntary reporting to mandatory reporting, as seen in the EU with the CSRD and the emergence of new global initiatives such as the ISSB.

By working on this case, students will gain knowledge about environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors, how to utilize key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure sustainability, the key concept of materiality in sustainability, and how to integrate this information with commonly used financial ratios taught in other finance and accounting courses. Through this, students will understand that relying solely on a financial perspective is no longer enough.