Beyond ESG: Regenerative finance, a new investment paradigm

The environmental, social, and governance (ESG) framework has contributed to the formalisation of non-financial criteria in investment decisions, the dissemination of reporting frameworks and tools, and the institutional legitimisation of sustainable finance (Kitzmueller & Shimshack, 2012). Nevertheless, a growing literature highlights the structural limits of this framework in light of the systemic transformations required by contemporary ecological and social crises (Adams et al., 2016; Thomas, 2025).

ESG approaches remain largely procedural and focused on regulatory and normative compliance. They are part of the dynamics of standardization and normalization that frame organizational behavior, without guaranteeing a substantial transformation of business models or biophysical and social systems., and governance (ESG) framework has contributed to the formalisation of non-financial criteria in investment decisions, the dissemination of reporting frameworks and tools, and the institutional legitimisation  These findings are in line with the criticism levelled at environmental strategies focused on risk management and compliance, rather than on the profound transformation of development trajectories. The dominant logic remains that of the "lesser evil": reducing negative externalities or slowing the degradation of natural and social capital, rather than generating net and measurable positive impacts at the ecosystem and community levels. Recent regulatory innovations (e.g., the EU taxonomy and transparency requirements for sustainable finance) seek to steer financial flows toward sustainability. However, their capacity to move beyond an essentially defensive ESG logic remains under study (Brożek et al., 2024). In this context, the notion of regenerative finance is emerging, understood not as a simple extension of sustainable or impact finance, but as a proposal for a paradigm shift in investment and performance design (Khan, 2024). This notion is part of a broader family of work on regenerative sustainability, systemic innovation (Gaziulusoy et al., 2013), and green and sustainable business models (Jadhav et al., 2025). This transition to regenerative finance (ReFi) can be analysed both as an extension of the ESG paradigm and as a basis for redefining performance standards and market infrastructures in the context of recent regulations (taxonomy, SFDR, CSRD, ISSB, TCFD, and TNFD).

This track proposes to bring together contributions that articulate an informed critique of the limits of ESG and mainstream sustainable finance, and that rigorously explore the theoretical, methodological, and empirical contours of regenerative finance. It is aimed at work in finance, strategy, organizational theory, sociology, environmental studies, and, more broadly, at research mobilizing inter- and transdisciplinary approaches. What types of innovations (technological, organizational, financial, regulatory) are needed to move from incremental logics of sustainability to systems transformations? To what extent do the new European regulatory frameworks strengthen the existing ESG paradigm or create space for truly regenerative finance? What measurement, governance, and value-sharing mechanisms can credibly demonstrate net regenerative impacts, from an ecological resilience perspective?

Keywords: Regulatory framework; ecological resilience; taxonomy; innovation; durability.

Track leaders:

Aymen HABIB, Associate Professor in Finance; European Business School – EBS Paris; aymen.habib@ebs-paris.com

Mohamed OUIAKOUB, Senior Lecturer in Management Sciences at the University of Lorraine; mohamed.ouiakoub@univ-lorraine.fr