Sustainable investment analysis with the sustainable value approach - A plea and a methodology to overcome the instrumental bias in socially responsible investment research

The increased demand for sustainable investments has resulted in an increased interest in sustainable investment analysis. Existing sustainable investment analysis assesses environmental and social performance in isolation and/or subordinates environmental and social performance under economic performance. Neither is in-line with the demands of sustainable development. This article shows how the sustainable value approach can be used for sustainable investment analysis. Sustainable value is the first value-oriented sustainability assessment. In contrast to existing approaches it is fully integrated and it does not subordinate environmental and social aspects under economic aspects. Using the example of Danone we demonstrate the applicability of the sustainable value approach for sustainable investment analysis.