Dates and location
Pricing
Hours
Dates and location
Pricing
Hours
Description
ESG is a rapidly emerging critical area for businesses, and CPAs have a key role to play in helping companies manage ESG risks, comply with reporting requirements, attract investment, and maintain their reputation. This certificate will provide you with specialized knowledge and skills to enhance your credibility and add value to your organization.
The Fundamentals of ESG on-demand certificate covers several aspects of ESG for the finance professional in six stand-alone curated courses that can be taken in any order.
Note: The ESG Reporting module of the Fundamentals of ESG Certificate has been updated as of June 2024 to reflect the evolving ESG reporting landscape in Canada. If you have taken the full certificate before and would like to stay up-to-date, please register for the stand-alone ESG reporting module here.
This certificate program aims to support learners with practical, application-focused microlearning content to help them create and manage an effective ESG strategy at their workplace.
Earn a digital badge on successful completion of a mandatory assessment and prove your competency in ESG to your employer or potential opportunity. Find new opportunities in the field of ESG by adding a verifiable achievement to your social profile.
Topics Include:
- Standing of ESG components and their application in business
- Frameworks to build an ESG strategy suitable for their organization
- Methods to select appropriate metrics and apply the right reporting frameworks for their organization
- Approach to identify ESG risks and incorporate into a risk management system
- Best Practices for obtaining buy-in from the Board and establishing ESG Governance
Course Breakdown:
| Module | Learning Outcomes | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
|
Module 1: |
|
Sarah Keyes ESG Global |
|
Module 2: |
|
Shelley Gilberg PWC Canada |
|
Module 3: |
|
Sarah Keyes ESG Global |
|
Module 4: |
|
Shreya Verma ESG Global |
|
Module 5: |
|
Edward Olson MNP LLP |
|
Module 6: |
|
Alison Joutsi ESG Global |
NOTE: Each stand-alone course takes approximately 2.5 hours to complete and it takes 15 hours in total to complete the full certificate.
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Key Takeaways
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
- Explain the role(s) CPAs and finance professionals can play in supporting organizations' ESG initiatives.
- Explore & highlight how ESG intersects with governance and how to integrate best practices into oversight activities.
- Explain the correlations and interconnections between ESG risks and existing organizational risks.
- Outline steps for setting ESG goals and performance targets.
- Explain how to select the appropriate ESG reporting framework and standards.
Earn a Digital Badge
Our new collection of digital badges can be earned through the completion of any of our certificate programs offered in our professional development catalogue. Collect these digital badges to add to your website, social profiles, email signature and more. These badges are an easy way to visually communicate your skills and accomplishments to your peers and network. Digital badges will be awarded based on course completion requirements.
Who Will Benefit
Examples of professions who may benefit from this course include:
- Financial Statement Preparers
- Finance Managers
- Board Members
- Professionals involved in the preparation of sustainability or integrated reports
- Chief Executive Officers
- Chief Finance Officers
How to Access the Course
We're pleased to invite you to register for our Certificate courses. Whether or not you're a CPA, you're more than welcome to join us on this learning journey. To get started, you'll need to create an account. Don't worry if you don't have a CPA Ontario ID yet; you can easily set up your account right here. Let's begin your learning adventure together.
This is an online session. This course is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Once registered, you can access the material at any time.
However, you will only have access to the course for 90 days after REGISTRATION.
New mobile learning! Download Blackboard Learn from your app store (iOS or Android). Learn more.
To access the course on your computer please visit our BlackBoard site, and log-in using the same login and password used for the Registration Portal.
Please allow up to 15 minutes after registration for the course to appear on your BlackBoard page.
Registration, cancellation, withdrawal and all other CPA Ontario PD policies can be found here.
Speaker(s)
| SPEAKERS | |
|---|---|
|
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Sarah Keyes, FCPA, FCA, is CEO at ESG Global Advisors and an ESG and climate change expert with over a decade of work experience as a thought leader, consultant, facilitator, and auditor. She regularly presents to Executive teams and Boards of Directors on the link between ESG and climate change with financial and operational performance and long-term value. Sarah helps her clients establish ESG and climate change strategies that align with strategic priorities, enabling effective integration with existing risk and strategy processes. |
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Alison Joutsi, LL.B, MBA, is an ESG professional with significant experience building ESG programs and managing sustainability risks and opportunities for corporate clients. Her diverse background in law, business and communication allows her to build ESG strategies that integrate with existing corporate goals and priorities generating long-term return on investment. She is regularly called upon to present to Boards and speak at various events on ESG regulation, disclosure, climate risk, and is frequent guest lecturer to students on ESG strategy and reporting. |
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Shreya Verma Mair is a Senior Associate at ESG Global Advisors, a boutique consulting firm that is driven by an informed belief that Environmental, Social and Governance issues matter and businesses that incorporate them into their decision-making stand to thrive over the long-term. Shreya has over six years of experience in advisory services, assisting clients in understanding the business impacts of climate change and broader ESG considerations. Shreya has worked with mid- and large-cap organizations, supporting clients with identifying and prioritizing ESG-related risks and opportunities (including climate) and developing strategies that align with organizations strategic objectives in order to drive value. She has deep knowledge on investor-expectations and the rapidly changing regulatory environment on sustainability-related disclosures, including climate. |
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Shelley Gilberg, CPA, CMA, ICD.D, is the Canadian Leader for ESG for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. She has spent more than 25 years in both industry and in advisory services. She has been a COO, CFO, and a Transformation executive delivering on finance, operations, technology, strategy, and innovation portfolios. In advisory services to clients she has led strategy, sales and delivery globally across several industries. Shelley brings proven experience providing clients with trusted advice to enable their most strategic and important initiatives, such as ESG. She focuses primarily on pension funds and private equity, but works across all sectors translating ESG risks and opportunities into measurable enterprise value. |
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Edward Olson is Leader of MNP’s Environmental, Social and Governance practice. Drawing on more than 24 years of Canadian and international experience through roles in public practice and industry, Edward delivers practical and meaningful business advice to private and public sector clients. He is an accomplished senior leader with a proven track record of driving organizational success through strategic leadership and collaboration. With a wealth of experience working closely with senior executive leadership teams and boards of directors, Edward has consistently demonstrated exceptional leadership capabilities and a keen understanding of complex business environments. This now includes assisting his clients with environmental, social and governance sustainability awareness and adoption including identification, measurement, management of material topics. |
Testimonials
I would like to thank CPA Ontario and all the experts who designed the Fundamentals of ESG Certificate. I strongly recommend this certificate to all professionals because it provides a broad knowledge of the different components and processes of implementing ESG in a corporation.