Sustainability as a Global Culture

Haluk Haksal

Sustainability as a Global Culture

The Political Economy of the SDGs and Mispricing of the Future

by Haluk Haksal

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Here is a book that treats sustainability from a political economy and finance perspective. It adopts a Green Keynesian approach and gives pricing and investments a key role, and thus provides a fresh perspective on sustainable investments.

Professor Rick van der Ploeg
Director of Research, Professor of Economics
University of Oxford, UK

This book offers a compelling reframing of sustainability. Rather than treating it as a trade-off among competing objectives, Haluk Haksal presents it as a global culture that shapes how we invest, govern, and live. By tracing the path from mispriced markets through sustainable investment to macroeconomic policy, he provides both a sharp diagnosis of why current systems fall short and a coherent framework for aligning them with ecological limits and long-term human well-being. The clarity and structure of the analysis make this book particularly valuable for teaching in sustainability and environmental economics, as well as ecological economics.

Professor Karl Schmedders
Professor of Finance
IMD Lausanne, Switzerland

This book provides a comprehensive perspective on sustainability and environmental economics, making it a valuable resource for both teaching and research.

Professor Sevil Acar
Professor of Economics
Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Türkiye

Sustainable finance has travelled a long way, but genuine sustainability is nowhere close. With this book, Dr. Haluk Haksal provides a comprehensive overview to readers interested in the history and future of sustainable finance. You will find yourself immersed between analytical detail and appeal to sustainability as a precondition for human freedom and dignity.

Philipp Censkowsky
Faculty of Business and Economics (HEC Lausanne)
University of Lausanne, Switzerland

This is an intellectually rich book that diagnoses the global pricing system's failure to internalize ecological and social costs, and builds a credible analytical framework for correcting it. Dr. Haksal offers an original analytical architecture that shows what follows when we stop treating sustainability as a trade-off and start treating it as the frame within which economic choices are made. This book is well-suited as a textbook in ecological economics or sustainability.

Professor Murat Tarakci
Professor of Innovation Strategy
IMD Lausanne, Switzerland

What distinguishes this book is its clarity on what actually changes behavior: culture, not compliance. By treating the SDGs as shared ethical coordinates rather than bureaucratic milestones, Haksal delivers an educational foundation we urgently need. The critique of GDP orthodoxy and the case for post-GDP economics are not tangential; they are overdue. Pluridisciplinary thinking has become the baseline.

Dr. Nathan Delacrétaz
Research Fellow, Center for Risk Management Lausanne (CRML)
Faculty of Business and Economics (HEC Lausanne)
University of Lausanne, Switzerland

The economics of sustainability begins with how the global economy assigns value.
The global pricing system is structurally misaligned with sustainability imperatives.
Sustainability is a macroeconomic coordination problem.
Sustainable investment constitutes the primary economic transmission mechanism through which sustainability becomes operational.
This study defines sustainability as a global culture, understood as the internalisation of sustainability in economic preferences.
Sustainability transforms firms’ cost structures, with profound implications for cash-flow dynamics and risk exposure, thereby influencing the valuation of investment.
Do we recognise sustainability not merely as a constraint, but as a meaningful and permanent way of life?
Do we see ourselves as part of this global culture?
The analysis integrates insights from political economy, behavioural economics, and corporate finance to develop a political-economic framework of sustainable investment, addressing topics such as carbon pricing, alternative measures to GDP, nudges, and real options.
Designed for researchers, students, policymakers, practitioners, and general readers, the book combines analytical rigour with accessibility through dual chapter summaries that translate complex ideas into intuitive insights. It offers both a diagnostic framework and a pathway for aligning economic systems with planetary limits and human well-being.

List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Abbreviations
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 From Sustainability to Sustainable Finance
Chapter 3 Sustainability and the Changing Cost Structure of Firms
Chapter 4 Sustainability at the Micro Level
Chapter 5 Sustainability at the Macro Level
Chapter 6 Conclusion
Annex: Real Options - Evaluating Sustainable Investment Projects
Bibliography
Author’s Bio
Index

Haluk Haksal is an economist specialised in green macroeconomics. He holds a graduate degree in Economics from the University of Florence, a Master's degree in Banking and Finance from HEC Lausanne, and a PhD in Economics from the University of Geneva.
He has extensive professional experience within the United Nations system, having served at FAO, UNCTAD, and ILO. He is active within the international sustainability community and teaches at the graduate level at academic institutions in Switzerland.
His research focuses on green macroeconomics, particularly on the political economy of sustainable investment and on operationalising the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He has a particular interest in the role of sustainable investment in aligning economic systems, financial markets, and public policy within ecological limits.

Pricing system misalignment, externalities, endogenous preferences, sustainable investment, SDG-aligned finance, double materiality, carbon pricing, Keynesian uncertainty, real options analysis, ecological footprint, planetary boundaries, green Keynesianism, inequality dynamics, intergenerational welfare, ESG frameworks, alternative economic metrics, capability approach, global sustainability governance