Caroline Flammer

Caroline Flammer is a Professor of International and Public Affairs and of Climate at Columbia University with joint appointments at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) and the Climate School. She is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Caroline is an expert in sustainable investing and the recipient of numerous prestigious awards. Her research examines whether and how sustainable finance and impact investing can help finance a more sustainable world. Moreover, her research examines how, and under which conditions, firms can incorporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations into their activities to enhance their competitiveness while strengthening—instead of undermining—the very system in which they operate and hereby play a critical role in addressing climate change, inequality, global health, and other grand challenges related to society and the natural environment.

The Web of Science ranked her among the top-100 Highly Cited Researchers in the economics and business profession in terms of impact over the past 10 years. At Columbia, she teaches the graduate courses "Social Impact: Business, Society, and the Natural Environment" and "Sustainable Finance II: System-level Investing". Furthermore, she serves as the Director of SIPA's new Sustainable Investing Research Initiative (SIRI) which aims to foster scholarship, education, and dialogue on the interplay and interdependencies between investment and major challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, poverty, and social inequalities.

Among other roles, Caroline serves as the President of the Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability (ARCS), a global multi-disciplinary network of scholars fostering rigorous academic research on corporate sustainability, and as the Chair of the Academic Advisory Committee of the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), the largest network of responsible investors to date. She is an Associate Editor for both Management Science and the Strategic Management Journal