Introduction to ESG

Sberbank Corporate University has made its new ESG: Introduction training course available free of charge on its website.

The curriculum will appeal to both specialists and managers in corporate sustainability roles, as well as those who feel passionate about the environment. The online training course was put together with support from SIBUR.

Alexander Vedyakhin,

Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board of SberBank:
“Having laid the foundations of an ESG culture, we now not only market new green products but also help our retail and corporate customers to shape and implement their own ESG agendas”


Care for the environment (E), attention to social aspects (S), and a commitment to high standards of corporate governance (G) are the three things that modern enterprises must focus on. This course equips specialists with the tools to assess how the ESG agenda is impacting operations, understand ESG risks to business, identify the pros and cons of various risk assessment and management tools, navigate through impact mitigation mechanisms, and boost their company’s sustainability.

“Sber’s ESG transformation is inextricably linked with the ESG journeys of our customers. Having laid the foundations of an ESG culture, we now not only market new green products but also help our retail and corporate customers to shape and implement their own ESG agendas that are tailored to their own businesses. We also lay out the requirements of ESG risk assessment and compliance with ESG standards,” explained Alexander Vedyakhin, First Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board of SberBank.

The training curriculum consists of five modules featuring animated video interviews with experts, behavioural surveys that show how your answers stack up against those of fellow trainees, fact-checking tasks, and real-world cases from companies like Sber, SIBUR, the Sistema Charitable Foundation, Sistema, and the coffee chain Flip. The training programme covers fundamental and applied issues. These include opportunities to apply ESG tools to the financing of business projects.

The online training course was put together with support from SIBUR. The training curriculum consists of five modules featuring animated video interviews with experts, behavioural surveys that show how your answers stack up against those of fellow trainees, and fact-checking tasks

It is worth noting that SIBUR has played a role in these kinds of training programmes for several years now. In 2019, the Company launched an online training course to raise awareness of the circular economy and sustainability. On top of that, SIBUR’s partners and employees regularly use webinars to discuss a strategy encompassing business, social, and environmental needs.

The urgency of this topic is driven by the fact that employees, clients, and investors want to work with sustainable companies for the simple fact that such businesses are much more stable: they are reliable employers, business partners, and investments. In many countries today, the environmental and social agendas are well integrated into economic policy to create a conducive business environment. The drive to link business interests and responsible corporate behaviour is underpinned by incentives. International practice sees green projects more likely to get cheaper credit or sometimes even tax benefits.

Similar approaches are emerging in Russia, too. This is supported by the fact that Russian climate legislation is evolving, with a new law limiting greenhouse gas emissions having been adopted, and a low-carbon development strategy and relevant by-laws in the pipeline. So, sooner or later, all Russian companies will have to set more stringent emission-reduction targets.

Follow this link to access the training course.


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