As part of the international virtual mobility program “Next Generation Finance: Innovation, Sustainability, and Global Impact” — jointly implemented by Sumy State University (Ukraine), Vilnius University (Lithuania), the University of Applied Sciences Baltazar Zaprešić (Croatia), and Marmara University (Türkiye) — a lecture took place on December 8.
The session, titled “Environmental Impact of ESG Investments: Addressing the Lack of Cross-Industry Calibration in Current ESG Ratings,” was delivered by Michael Hedegaard, M.Sc., Associate Professor at the Department of Engineering Technology and Didactics – Business Development, Technical University of Denmark (Copenhagen, Denmark).
During the presentation, the speaker introduced the results of a comprehensive study aimed at recalibrating traditional ESG metrics by integrating cross-industry environmental materiality. As part of this work, the research team proposed the Environmental Delta Score (EDS) — an advanced metric designed to help investors identify companies with genuinely significant environmental impact while maintaining competitive risk-adjusted returns.
The lecture brought together a broad academic audience, including bachelor’s and master’s students, as well as doctoral candidates, representing educational programs in Finance, Banking, and related fields. Participants actively engaged in real-time polls, sharing their views on key ESG considerations. The live data visualization added an interactive and insightful component to the event.
The meeting was coordinated by Anastasiia Samoilikova, Ph.D. in Economics, Senior Lecturer, and Deputy Head of the Department for International Activities, Department of Financial Technologies and Entrepreneurship of Sumy State University.
We express our sincere gratitude to the coordinators of the Virtual Mobility Program and to Michael Hedegaard for his valuable contribution and collaboration. This lecture marks a strong start to the Mobility Program. We look forward with great anticipation to the upcoming lectures that will take place very soon within the program’s framework in cooperation with our partner universities!
