Values and Norms in the Sustainable Finance Debate: Similarities, Differences, and Perspectives for Sustainable Investment

Alongside norms, it is values that shape sustainable investment. In the sustainable finance debate, however, the influence of value preferences on financial investment has so far not played a significant role. This is surprising, since value preferences have just as much influence on the materiality of investment objects as financial and sustainability aspects. On the basis of the three investment criteria—human rights violations, nuclear energy, and armaments and military—commonalities and differences between values- and norms-based argumentations are presented. Wealthy capital owners in particular increasingly want to know what financial influence moral values have on their assets on the one hand and what contributions capital investments make to their moral values on the other.