Sustainable Financing and ESG Investments in the Context of the VUCA Environment

Abstract

In the current economic context, at the global level, the problem faced by organizations is determined by the means of environmental protection and the reduction of the negative effects of the ongoing activities, adopted at the organizational level. Thus, the objective of the research in this paper is to identify concepts such as sustainability/sustainable development within organizations and their financing mechanisms.The aim of the research is to contribute to increasing the knowledge of the tools for the sustainable development of companies, through the new sustainability approach that aims to re-educate both the business environment and the consumer, the ESG standard being a competitiveness trigger. The volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity of the mechanisms developed and adopted at the level of organizations, being able to be reduced by adopting effective strategies based on ESG principles at the managerial level.The research methodology includes both secondary data collected from European Commission information sources, articles and existing specialist content in the direction of the development of ESG factors and the VUCA world, as well as the authors’ interpretation based on the collected information.The existence of funding instruments such as the Horizon Europe, Life Programme, Innovation Fund (IF) programs granted through non-reimbursable development projects to encourage sustainability directions in terms of economic, social and governance factors within organizations is demonstrated. Also, the financing of sustainable development projects contributes to the consolidation of the VUCA phenomenon, namely the realization of complex projects in both the public and private sectors, in a volatile market with unpredictable factors as a result of the globalization process.