Abstract
Financial professionals are not trained to integrate ESG in their work. They predominantly learn 'on the job' how to integrate ESG. •To support the further development of sustainable finance markets, universities need to further integrate core sustainability issues in finance education.•We carried out 52interviews with leading scholars and lecturers in sustainable finance education to capture how sustainable finance is currently being taught.•Sustainable finance teachers1have very diverse profiles and backgrounds. Many are not trained in finance but in other social sciences and even in environmental science. Nonetheless, they share the common belief that finance should contribute to solving sustainability issues. •Integration strategies range from electives to core courses and master’s degree specialization. While core courses are necessary to expose all students to sustainability issues in finance, in-depth elective or master courses are valuable to create expertise.•In sustainable finance lectures, students may be introduced to main issues and strategies in sustainable finance,or develop technical skills and holistic reasoning.•Teaching resources rely heavily on practitioner outputs, but case studies and textbooks are currently being developed and shared among teachers and academic groups. •The lack of individual career incentives (such as research outcomes) and resources hinders the mobilization of teachers for sustainable finance.•Participation in sustainable finance academic groups facilitates the integration of sustainable finance education and enhances teaching practices.