ESG Research and Resource Center

An increasing number of financial institutions integrate sustainability considerations such as environment, social and governance factors into their investment decisions and product development. Increased customer awareness, regulations, and growing evidence of the long-term benefits of considering sustainability in investment decisions has led to a significant growth in the sustainable finance field.

The Sustainable Finance Market Insights podcast series is produced by Sustainalytics’ Sustainable Finance Solutions team. With this series, we deliver piping hot insights on the latest news and developments in the sustainable finance space.

Our experts will assess the ESG impact of a company’s activities and products, including corporate social responsibility programs, supply chain spending, and operations.

Download our Sustainability-Linked Bonds Methodology backgrounder to understand our approach to assess alignment with the Sustainability-Linked Bond Principles (SLBP).

In this video, Lili Hocke, Sustainable Finance Solutions Product Manager, explains in detail the methodology behind our Second-Party Opinion approach on Sustainability-Linked Bonds (SLBs).

Review the second-party opinions for some of the green, social and sustainability bonds mentioned in our 500th SPO post. Learn more about the issuers, and the socially and environmentally focused projects and initiatives their bonds funded.

As the largest second-party opinion provider, Sustainalytics works with hundreds of the world’s leading issuers and investment banks to help them bring credible sustainability bonds and loans to market.

An SPO provides potential investors with assurance that the use of proceeds for the bond or loan, as set out in the framework, are aligned to market practices.

Climate bonds, loans or debt instruments are used to finance or re-finance projects that address climate change and are in line with achieving the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. Such projects include wind farms, solar plants, sustainable buildings, etc. and can be found in a multitude of sectors including shipping, agriculture, energy or forestry amongst others.

ESG Risk Ratings are categorized across five risk levels. Sustainalytics' ESG Risk Ratings span more than 12,000 companies and encompass most major global indices. Have questions about ESG Risk Ratings? Learn more from our FAQ

Review the second-party opinions for some of the green, social and sustainability bonds mentioned in our 500th SPO post. Learn more about the issuers, and the socially and environmentally focused projects and initiatives their bonds funded.

Sustainalytics’ ESG Risk Ratings are designed to help investors identify and understand financially material ESG risks in their portfolio companies and how those risks might affect performance.

What is the EU Action Plan on Sustainable Finance? Published in March 2018, it describes the The EU Taxonomy is a list of economic activities with performance criteria for their contribution to six environmental objectives.

The green bond market has seen major growth in recent years. There is, however, a strong recognition that achieving international climate goals will require significant reduction of GHG emissions from carbon-intensive industrial activities that to date have not been the focus of green finance and for which low-carbon solutions are generally not yet available at scale due to major technological and/or systemic barriers. Those are commonly referred to as transition sectors.

Interested in obtaining an ESG License from Sustainalytics to meet both internal and external business needs? Our ESG Risk Ratings are used by the world's largest institutional investors to help shape and guide their investment strategies when looking for top performing ESG companies.

An ESG Risk Ratings Licence from Sustainalytics, allows your company to use Sustainalytics’ ESG Risk Rating for various internal and external corporate purposes. As awareness of the materiality of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors has grown, so too has the demand for new uses of ESG data and information to be disclosed beyond just the investor community.

Has your organization issued a green, social or sustainability bond in the last couple of years? Have you communicated to your sustainability bond investors about the projects funded by the bond and their impact?

Review the second-party opinions for some of the green, social and sustainability bonds mentioned in our 500th SPO post. Learn more about the issuers, and the socially and environmentally focused projects and initiatives their bonds funded.

ESG Risk Ratings are categorized across five risk levels. Sustainalytics' ESG Risk Ratings span more than 12,000 companies and encompass most major global indices.

Sustainalytics´ Peer Performance Insights suite of products provides information about the company’s ESG Risk Rating and its components compared to a select number of industry peers.