Certificate in Sustainability for Finance (CertSF)

This course is for finance and business professionals who want to develop their understanding on the issue of sustainability, the impact on organisations and the part they can play. The course explores how finance professionals can support opportunities to redefine value and businesses models to become more sustainable.

On completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• define sustainability and sustainable development
• explain why sustainability is important to society, to organisations, and to finance professionals
• understand the global challenges of sustainable development and how business organisations can help meet these challenges
• evaluate business value chains, business models and business practices for sustainability and related issues
• understand sustainability reporting frameworks
• understand how the Science Based Targets initiative, and Big Data, contribute to sustainability
• understand responsible investment principles.

Climate change impacts every organisation, and the risks and opportunities for organisations need to be understood and managed. Professional accountants and finance teams are currently underutilised in this area, but our skills and knowledge are essential in building better impact management.

In this course, we will be looking at the external forces relating to climate change that, as professional accountants, we will have to address in order to

On completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• define climate change risks, including physical risk, transition risk, and the financial implications associated with these risks
• explain the stakeholder pressures for change in terms of reporting and climate-related disclosures
• describe the main reporting frameworks for climate risk disclosures
• understand how organisations can improve their reporting and climate change analysis processes. 

This course aims to equip you with an understanding of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the value creation opportunities for organisations from aligning with the SDGs. This will enable you to support your organisation and clients in developing SDG impact-aligned business models and establish systems to report on the progress of achievement of impact outcomes.

On completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• explain the development of the UN SDGs, their significance for organisations in terms of risks and opportunities and discuss definitions of 'impact' 
• identify guidelines for aligning business models with SDGs and examples of impact business models and products 
• understand the various frameworks available for impact reporting and accounting.

This course will provide you with an understanding of the importance of measuring and managing performance related to environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues and will enable you to apply accounting techniques to the collection and disclosure of ESG data and information.

On completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• explain why ESG issues are important and relevant 
• identify core ESG issues and metrics for your organisation 
• evaluate processes and systems for collecting, analysing and reporting ESG information.

This course will provide you with an understanding and overview on ESG data types, sources, tools and techniques to support sustainability analysis and its importance. We will explore how you can become more effective finance business partners, enabling you to provide valuable insight to support decision making by linking sustainability to financial reporting and business strategies.

On completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• explain why sustainability analytics is important and relevant 
• identify core ESG data, sources, tools and techniques to perform sustainability analytics for your organisation 
• evaluate the approach for compiling, analysing and interpreting ESG data 
• apply relevant ESG metrics, targets, KPIs, benchmarking, monitoring and reporting measures. 

Assessment consists of a multiple-choice quiz containing twenty-five questions from a question bank. You get three attempts to pass the assessment and the pass mark is 50%. The assessment can only be attempted once you have completed all five of the sustainability courses that make up the certificate.

The fees cover three attempts to re-sit the assessment if you fail but must be taken within six months of accessing the online course. If you do not pass after three attempts, you will need to pay another registration fee to attempt the assessment again, giving you a further three attempts to pass.