Sustainability and responsible corporate management have moved to the centre of entrepreneurial action. This is caused both by customers who have become more and more aware of the need to consume responsibly and by investors' interest in supporting sustainable businesses via their investment decisions.
Unfortunately, sustainability is often narrowly subsumed under the heading of "greening the economy". To deliver a sound business case, however, a sustainable corporate strategy needs to consider both environmental, social and governance aspects. At the same time, simply striving for "more" sustainability on each of these dimensions is not necessarily a good strategy for all businesses. Rather, a thorough assessment of the materiality of individual sustainability components is a necessary first step for both management and investors in their decision making. In our different research projects, we try to shed light on these different issues. We particularly focus on the question how a sustainable strategy can be effectively and efficiently implemented through a company's processes and structures. Examples include the integration of sustainability key performance indicators in management compensation systems or in bank loans.
The Sustainable Governance Lab aspires to furthering the sustainable development by providing robust and insightful academic evidence of the role and effects of corporate sustainability. We currently work on the following projects (for published papers, see Research):
Auzepy, A., C. Bannier and F. Martin, 2022, Are sustainability-linked loans designed to effectively incentivize corporate
sustainability? A framework for review, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4293774
Bannier, C., Y. Bofinger and B. Rock, 2022, The risk-return tradeoff: Are sustainable investors compensated adequately?
Auzepy A., C. Bannier and F. Martin, 2022, Walk the Talk: Shareholders' Soft Engagement on Annual General Meetings, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4293762
Auzepy, A., C. Bannier, Y. Bofinger and B. Rock, 2022, Carbon footprints and equity risk assessments, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4031824
Bannier, C., A. Bauer, Y. Bofinger and C. Ewelt-Knauer, 2021, Corporate ethics programs: Reducing risks or wasting money? Insights from the perspective of investors, Working Paper, Justus-Liebig-University Gießen ( (link: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3382084)
Scenario Analysis as a Tool for InvestorS, Firms, and regulators on the path to climate neutralitY (SATISFY), a joint research project with Frankfurt School of Finance & Management and the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), financed by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
Expert Commission for the Development of Sustainable Governance Principles for SMEs, a joint project with Julia Redenius-Hövermann (Frankfurt School of Finance & Management)
Börsenzeitung, „Nachhaltigkeitsleitfaden für den Mittelstand“, 10.09.2022
Managermagazin, „Grüne Heuchelei“, 16.12.2021
Börsenzeitung, „Nicht nur Häkchen setzen“, 16.10.2021
Börsenzeitung, "Fondsmanager im ESG-Dilemma", 05.06.2021
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, „Nachhaltigkeit – ein Pflichtprogramm auch für Aufsichtsräte!“, 10.04.2021
Süddeutsche Zeitung, „Große blinde Flecken“, 22.03.2021
Börsenzeitung, "DVFA stellt Nachholbedarf in der Governance fest", 09.12.2020
HV-Magazin, „Wie sieht die HV der Zukunft aus – Experteninterview“, 12.10.2020
Börsenzeitung, „Gesetzgeber muss Aktionärsrechte in der virtuellen HV sichern“, 25.09.2020
Institutional-money, DVFA über den Lohn guter Governance, 11.09.2020
Börsenzeitung, „Eine gute Governance senkt die Risiken“, 11.09.2020
HR Info, Interview, 02.07.2020
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, „Der blinde Fleck der BaFin“, 01.07.2020
Handelsblatt, „Der Kampf um den guten Ruf“, 17.06.2020
ComplianceChannel-TV, „Doing safe by doing good“, Podcast, 09.06.2020
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung „Wirecard in der Krise“, 29.05.2020
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung „Die virtuelle Hauptversammlung hat Chancen und Risiken“, 15.04.2020
Börsenzeitung „Nachhaltigkeitsrisiken aus Sicht des Aufsichtsrats“, 17.01.2020
Börsenzeitung „Kleine Assetmanager müssen sich umstellen - Neues Aktionärsrechtegesetz ARUG II fördert Austausch im Sinne von „Stewardship““, 21.09.2019
Wirtschaftswoche “Es gibt keine gläserne Klippe”, 11.01.2019
Reuters “Doing the dirty work – do women mop up workplace mess?”, 13.12.2018