Events

The Sustainable Finance Summit 2025 will address those key questions and related challenges. Under the motto “Sustainable Financing: Bridging the Gap Between Finance and the Real Economy”, this year’s event will focus on the necessity of close collaboration between businesses and the financial sector to achieve a sustainable future.

Join the Sustainable Finance Summit and experience two days of inspiring and insightful presentations and discussions.

This event makes one thing clear: transformation is happening — but it needs political clarity, strong data practices, and finance–real economy cooperation to reach scale and speed.

Jakob Kunzlmann (Bertelsmann Stiftung) and Dr. Manuel Reppmann (University of Hamburg) presented the key findings of STM25, a survey capturing how companies in the real economy and financial sector are progressing in the socio-ecological transformation.

Oliver Mergens from VAUDE shared how sustainability can become a core business driver. Drawing on their experience as a climate-neutral and family-owned outdoor brand, he showed how circular design, credibility, and innovation go hand in hand with long-term competitiveness.

A distinguished panel, moderated by Katarin Wagner (Econsense) and featuring Juergen von der Lehr (ING), Andreas Gruber (DKB), Claudia Huegel (Lufthansa), Kathrine Link (VCI), and Oliver Mergens explored how efficient transformation finance can succeed in practice.

The Sustainable Finance Cluster co-hosted this event in partnership with econsense – Forum for Sustainable Development of German Business e.V. at ING Deutschland in Frankfurt.

At our Cluster Get Together, Sebastian Rink from Frankfurt School presented the most important findings from two recent working papers. One dealt with the question of how to estimate sustainability data from financial data with the help of machine learning (“It’s in the financials, stupid! But is it certain?”). The other paper dealt with the role of private capital in the context of the Paris climate goals (“Consistency or Transformation? Finance in Climate Agreements”).

A lively discussion developed with the participants on both topics. The exchange continued afterwards over snacks and drinks, then also with a view to the “big issues” such as the impact of the Bundestag elections on sustainable finance in Germany and the current proposal of the Omnibus Initiative.

At our first get-together of the year at the Tech Quartier in Frankfurt, Heimo Saubach presented the key findings of the ESG Data Monitor 2024 conducted jointly by open ESG, PPA and Frankfurt School.

The current survey sheds light on the ongoing integration of ESG (environmental, social and governance) data into the risk management of financial institutions. Based on the survey of almost 150 financial institutions from Germany and Switzerland, the report provides valuable insights into the status quo, practical challenges and necessary solutions for the use of ESG data.

Following the presentation, the attendees discussed possible implications for the use of data in their organisations as well as remaining challenges. Many thanks to Heimo Saubach for the interesting presentation. We are looking forward to the new edition of the survey in 2025.

The motto of the summit was “More impact, more change – sustainable finance in implementation”. Around 400 experts from the world of finance, business, research, politics and supervision came together to discuss the latest developments and challenges in the implementation of sustainable finance and to develop concrete solutions for practical implementation.

The summit, which took place for the 8th time annually, provides a platform for the exchange of expertise and experience on the design of a sustainable financial system. Particular attention was paid to the question of how financial players can implement the change towards greater sustainability in practice. It was discussed which targeted measures and innovations can be used to channel more financial flows into sustainable projects in order to accelerate ecological and social change.

Many of the speakers underlined the urgency of the topic and emphasized the importance of pragmatic cooperation between the real and financial economy. The conclusion of the summit is: the future of finance is sustainable – and the time to act is now!