Research | Queen’s University Canada

Institute for Sustainable Finance

Institute for Sustainable Finance

The Institute for Sustainable Finance (ISF) is the first-ever multi-disciplinary and collaborative hub in Canada that brings together academia, the private sector, and government with the singular focus of increasing Canada’s sustainable finance capacity.

Its mission is to align mainstream financial markets with Canada’s transition to a prosperous sustainable economy, including long-term environmental sustainability. Housed at Smith School of Business at Queen’s University, the ISF will fill the gap of relevant data, expertise, and business-oriented solutions for sustainable finance. By aligning financial knowledge and tools with climate change imperatives, the ISF will foster Canada’s leadership in the shift to a low-carbon global economy.

To support its goals, the ISF established the Canadian Sustainable Finance Network (CSFN) to share learnings and create national and global partnerships.

Core Research

Research at the ISF provides clear and practical guidance for relevant stakeholders in the form of policy recommendations and discussion papers for government and industries, textbooks, as well as organizing and participating in conferences, workshops, and roundtables.

To address foundational business-oriented solutions, the ISF supports research in five main areas:

  • Fiduciary duty

  • Allocation of capital and management of risks

  • Reliable information

  • Financial regulation and policy

  • Taxonomies and classification systems

  • Partnerships
  • Student Opportunities

A key objective of the ISF is to provide a platform for collaboration between government, academia, and industry. To support this goal, the ISF established the Canadian Sustainable Finance Network (CSFN), an independent formal research and educational network for academia, industry and government to bring together a talented network of university faculty members and relevant members from industry, government, and civil society.

CFSN will be essential to sharing learnings and open the door to future research topics as well as creating partnerships with other entities from across Canada and globally.

In collaboration with its partners from academia, industry, and government, the ISF will develop training programs in order to grow both the short- and long-term capacity in sustainable finance among existing and future finance professionals and students.

This includes industry-relevant executive education courses and programs, academic courses, and specializations in PhD and MSc programs, and new specializations, diplomas, and degrees at the graduate and undergraduate levels.