Sustainable Financial Investments ― Maximizing Corporate Profits and Long-term Economic Value Creation

Is it possible for an investment to be good for a firm's profitability without also being good for the environment, employees, or community? Author Brian Bolton connects these seemingly disparate ideas and shows how to incorporate economic costs, benefits, cash flows and risks into the evaluation of any type of investment, with particular focus on those investments that are driven by environmental, human, and social considerations. Bolton mixes economic and finance rigor with applied case studies and examples throughout the book to see how the real world fits into the economic and financial analysis structure. By the end of the book readers will have an appreciation for at least two important issues: (1) analysis of all investments do follow a similar process; and, (2) the specific assumptions and variables that are necessary to include in the analysis of sustainability-related investments. The purpose of any investment is to add or create value; hopefully, after finishing this book, your investment in reading it will add value to your ability to think about and evaluate any investment.

Brian Bolton is an Associate Professor of Finance at Portland State University, USA. Prior to entering academia in 1997, he worked as a research analyst with Gordon Investment Corporation, a private equity group based out of Dallas, Texas, and as an acquisition consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he developed extensive experience working with CSR-based investments. His research has appeared in such mainstream publications as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg-BusinessWeek. He has taught finance courses in financial analysis and valuation, corporate finance, and financial markets and institutions at both the undergraduate and graduate levels at Portland State University, the University of New Hampshire and the University of Colorado, USA. He has published over 30 articles in the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Corporate Finance, Columbia Law Review, and numerous other journals and books.