Since the 2021, the financial industry evolved to include ESG criteria in its products and processes. Thanks to regulatory pressures and public opinion, Sustainable Finance is becoming THE new standard for financial centres across Europe. However, a lack of knowledge and common definitions are still present to define its key concepts.

Since 2021, EFPA Luxembourg launched an original initiative to democratise best practices in Sustainable Finance and establish clear and common definitions for its key concepts. Today, the EFPA ESG Handbook is joined by more than fifty entities and seventy co-authors sharing the same ambitions.

Over the EFPA ESG Advisor certification, launched in 2021 and owned by more than 8’000 financial advisors across Europe, the European Financial Planning Association (EFPA) wants to help to close the gap between the current level of information and the level necessary due to increasing regulatory requirements around the integration of ESG criterion. This is why, the EFPA ESG Handbook is becoming digital, with the addition of a dedicated website to enrich its content, improve its update, and avoid its obsolescence. On this site and on top of their handbook, owners of the EFPA ESG Handbook will find enriched content, a regularly updated information base and practical tools for filtering the various headings on the site.

History, regulation, investment products, investment process, risk management… this handbook offers a 360° point of view over the landscape of the Green Finance. We hope this journey will help the reader to have a better understanding of what Sustainable Finance means, looking at its framework, its aims, and its challenges. I wish you a pleasant reading.