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Dataset is designed to translate asset-level climate hazards into risk metrics for investors.

CHICAGO, June 24, 2026 – Morningstar Sustainalytics, a leading provider of sustainable investing research, ratings, and data, today announced it is collaborating with XDI (Cross Dependency Initiative), physical climate risk specialists, and Veridion, an AI-powered business data platform to further develop its physical climate risk product for asset managers and asset owners. 

This development intends to address a key gap in existing climate risk tools by seeking to translate physical hazard exposure into financially relevant insights. While the industry has made progress in identifying which assets face exposure to floods, wildfires, heat stress and other climate hazards, converting that exposure into metrics that support real investment decisions remains an evolving challenge. 

A group of asset managers and asset owners will act as partners, providing ongoing input on use cases, data needs, and integration into existing investment workflows. This will build on Morningstar Sustainalytics’ broader climate offering, including its Low Carbon Transition Ratings and existing Physical Climate Risk Metrics.

David Pagliaro, president, Morningstar Sustainalytics commented: “Working with XDI and Veridion reflects an important evolution in how physical climate risk is assessed and applied in investments. Physical asset-level hazard data has become more available, but investors have lacked a consistent framework to determine financial relevance at the portfolio level. By connecting exposure, asset materiality and financial impact through business interruption, this approach aims to help institutional investors identify where physical risks are most likely to affect long-term value and inform the integration of those insights into portfolio construction and risk management.”

This development brings together three complementary capabilities from each organization to create a more integrated view of physical climate risk.  

XDI will provide asset-level hazard impact analysis through its engineering-based Climate Risk Engines, combining sub-asset data, hazard modelling and forward-looking climate scenarios to estimate how climate hazards translate into operational disruption. These are designed to be consistent with key industry frameworks such as the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). 

Veridion will supply the geolocation and business intelligence layer needed to help map companies to their physical assets and operations globally. Veridion’s AI-enabled company intelligence platform supports the mapping of corporate entities to their physical assets and operations at global scale. Veridion's business and asset intelligence will connect directly to XDI's physical asset models.

Morningstar Sustainalytics will integrate each component of the product through its proprietary investment research framework. Central to this is a new Asset Materiality Assessment. This is a structured methodology for determining which physical assets are likely to be material to a company's core business activities. Not all assets exposed to climate hazards are equally consequential for investors. The Asset Materiality Assessment will seek to make that distinction clearer, with the aim of ensuring that physical risk signals are weighted by their estimated relevance to operations, revenue generation and long-term earnings capacity. 

The output is expected to combine asset-level physical risk data with company-level financial signals, giving investors a view that is intended to span granular exposure detail to portfolio-level financial implications. 

Dr Karl Mallon, founder and head of science and technology, XDI commented: "For nearly two decades, the XDI team has been pioneering physical climate risk analysis. The XDI Climate Risk Engines have always been designed to utilize detailed information on asset design, construction, and materiality. Until now, however, acquiring that level of intelligence at scale has been extremely difficult. Veridion helps make this rich business and asset data accessible. XDI translates it into sophisticated climate risk metrics. Morningstar Sustainalytics then seeks to transform those insights into a new generation of decision-ready intelligence for investors and the broader financial sector."

Florin Tufan, CEO of Veridion, commented: "Physical climate risk hinges on a deceptively simple question: which company owns what, and where? Veridion's live company graph answers it at global scale, mapping which assets belong to which companies, where they operate, and what activity is occurring at each location, so when investors act on an exposure number, they're acting on the world as it is."