Knowing how exposed and how well your portfolio companies manage their material ESG issues is now a critical part of making well-informed investment decisions.
That's why the world's leading investors rely on our ESG research and ratings for a consistent approach to evaluate financially material ESG issues that affect the long-term performance of their investments.
Learn more about why Sustainalytics’ ESG Research and Ratings are the industry standard.
Latest Insights
Telecom Network Outages, the ESG Risks of a Connected World
Impact of US Supreme Court’s EPA Ruling on US Utilities’ Carbon Exposure
Why ESG Investors Follow the Elon Musk Twitter Takeover
Overview of Sustainalytics’ ESG Risk Ratings
Sustainalytics’ ESG Risk Ratings measure a company’s exposure to industry-specific material ESG risks and how well a company is managing those risks. This multi-dimensional way of measuring ESG risk combines the concepts of management and exposure to arrive at an absolute assessment of ESG risk. We identify five categories of ESG risk severity that could impact a company’s enterprise value
The Rigor and Comprehensiveness that the World’s Leading Investors Count On
Absolute Measure of ESG Risk
A sophisticated methodology for rating absolute ESG risk, while enabling best-in-class analysis. Company ratings are comparable across peers and subindustries and allow for easy aggregation at the portfolio level.
Multiple Exposure Factors
Deep insights from multiple exposure factors, including business model, financial strength, geography and incident history.
Integrated Corporate Governance Information
Fully integrated, comprehensive corporate governance research and ratings.
Transparent Methodology
Transparent methodology with multiple levels of data and qualitative insights to provide clients with custom ESG solutions.
Two-Dimensional Materiality Framework
Two-dimensional materiality framework measures a company’s exposure to industry-specific material risks and how well a company is managing those risks.
Three Central Building Blocks
Corporate governance, material ESG issues, and idiosyncratic issues (black swans) form the three central building blocks of our ESG research and ratings.
Five Risk Levels
The ESG Risk Ratings are categorized across five risk levels: negligible (0-10), low (10-20), medium (20-30), high (30-40) and severe (40+).
13,000+ Companies Covered
Sustainalytics' ESG Research and Ratings span more than 13,000 companies and encompass most major global indices.
20 Material ESG Issues
The ratings framework is supported by 20 material ESG issues that are underpinned by more than 300 indicators and 1,300 data points.
Flexible Accessibility
The ESG Risk Ratings are available through Global Access, Datafeeds and API as well as several third-party distribution platforms.
Human Insights Supported by AI Efficiency
Daily News Monitoring
AI-powered Digital Content Curation
Research analysts leverage smart technologies to enable them to monitor more than 60,000 media sources, and up to one million news articles daily.
Robust Annual Update Cycle
- Company profiles updated annually with corporate reporting cycle
- Alternative data sources, like regulatory filings on product recalls and NGO sources, augment self-reported corporate data
- Analysis by a team of over 350 ESG research analysts supported by artificial intelligence powered descriptive and predictive analytic capabilities
- Robust quality control mechanisms with peer reviews by senior analysts and company feedback mechanisms
About Our Framework
Investor Use Cases
ESG Integration
Multi-dimensional ESG risk scores can be incorporated into equity or bond valuation models and aggregated at the portfolio-level.
Best-in-Class Investment Analysis
Comparable company scores support flexible applications for best-in-class analysis, including subindustry, sector or regional approaches.
Screening and Benchmarking
Overall Risk Ratings and material ESG issue scores support risk-based ESG screens and enable robust benchmarking across and within sectors and subindustries.
Thematic Investing
Scores on material ESG issues support thematic investment themes and provide meaningful new input for fund and index creation.
Engagement and Voting
Material ESG issue framework effectively supports engagement with companies on priority ESG issues and informs voting decisions on E&S shareholder resolutions.
Reporting & Promotion
Communicate sustainability performance and commitment through ESG reporting and leverage the Morningstar Sustainability RatingTM for funds for marketing purposes.
Report Insights
Company ratings are categorized across five risk levels: negligible, low, medium, high, and severe and represented by our ESG Globes icons.
A company’s risk is measured against its industry peers and against the global universe.
Qualitative analysis, underpinned by analyst insights and quantitative data, describes the reasons why a company is exposed to specific material ESG issues and explains how well a company is managing these issues.
Material ESG Issues (MEIs) are identified and brought into focus.
Transparency into company events that may impact a company’s operations, stakeholders or the environment.
The magnitude to which a company is exposed to ESG risk and how well the company is managing that risk is measured and explained.
Why Sustainalytics?
A Single Market Standard
Consistent approach to ESG assessments across the investment spectrum.
Award-Winning Research and Data
Firm recognized as Best ESG Research and Data Provider by Environmental Finance and Investment Week.
End-to-End ESG Solutions
ESG products and services that serve the entire investment value chain.
30 Years of ESG Expertise
500+ ESG research analysts across our global offices.
A Leading SPO Provider
As recognized by Environmental Finance and the Climate Bonds Initiative.
Climate Solutions
Leverage our carbon research to align your portfolio to the future low-carbon economy.
Learn More
Material Risk Engagement
Engage on the most material ESG risks identified by the ESG Risk Ratings.
Learn More
Impact Solutions
Measure, manage and report on the social and environmental impact of your portfolio.
Learn MoreMorningstar® Global Market SustainabilitySM Index Family
Best-in-class equity index that features reduced ESG risk profile with low to moderate tracking error.
Morningstar® Sustainability Dividend Yield FocusSM Index Family
High Income generating equity investments focused on total returns with reduced ESG Risk.
Morningstar® Global Corporate Bond Sustainability IndexesSM
Diversified corporate bond portfolio that avoids bonds with high ESG risk relative to their sector peers.
Morningstar® Sustainability Moat IndexesSM
Exposure to companies that have distinct competitive advantages as well as low ESG Risk.
Related Insights and Resources
Telecom Network Outages, the ESG Risks of a Connected World
The telecom industry is exposed to several Material ESG Issues, including Data Privacy and Security, Business Ethics, Human Capital and Product Governance. Product Governance issues in the telecom industry include service quality, maintaining reliable, high-speed networks, and responding to customer billing concerns.
Impact of US Supreme Court’s EPA Ruling on US Utilities’ Carbon Exposure
The Clean Power Plan was created using a directive from the Clean Air Act that enabled the EPA to set emission limits for air pollutants based on the best available technology to reduce emissions. The EPA aimed to cap carbon emissions and curb greenhouse (GHG) emissions by changing the composition of the existing operational power generation assets by forcing the closure of coal plants through strict emission caps, resulting in a system-wide transition to renewable energy.
Why ESG Investors Follow the Elon Musk Twitter Takeover
A self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist”, Musk has criticized what he views as excessive moderation on online platforms, indicating his desire to ease Twitter’s content moderation policies and only remove content deemed illegal by governments.
Ocean Carriers Facing Increased ESG Risk Amidst Supply Chain Crisis
Maritime shipping is the most common mode of transport for global trade, with around 80-90% of the volume of international trade in goods carried by sea. Complex supply chain challenges around the world made 2021 an exceptionally challenging year for retailers, exacerbating global inflation. Still, it was also very profitable for ocean carriers and containership owners.