ESG Research and Resource Center

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Sustainalytics’ Human Rights Radar provides information on companies that operate in volatile regions where grave human rights violations are taking place. Our research helps investors better understand the nature, impact and extent of companies’ activities as well as how well they are managing relevant risks. Download the brochure to learn more about the product.

With Sustainalytics‘ Country Screening, you can screen countries across UN, US, EU sanctions and 40 international norms and conventions to comply with client mandate, regulations, and investment policies.

Sustainable Products Research enables you to identify companies that are involved in a range of products and services that derive revenue from sustainable products and services.

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.

Sustainalytics’ Controversies Research uses smart technologies to monitor more than 60,000 media sources and 200,000 news items on a daily basis to identify companies involved in ESG-related incidents. Leverages this research to support investment decisions and manage reputational risks.

New regulations and stakeholder pressure are creating the need for investors to demonstrate their commitment as responsible owners that view corporate accountability as a means to achieving greater long-term value. In Europe, the Shareholder Rights Directive II requires transparency around voting and engagement and, in North America, voting is considered part of investors’ fiduciary duty with engagement being a natural extension thereof. This underlines the need to align voting and engagement activities.

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.

Sustainalytics' Product Involvement research helps identify companies involved in a range of products, services and business activities for screening purposes. Each activity is accompanied with a concise summary of the way the company is involved in the relevant product or activity.

Focused on 20 companies in the technology and pharmaceutical sectors, this engagement aims to create awareness among companies on tax avoidance and to encourage companies to approach tax as a corporate governance and risk management issue.

Agriculture is estimated to account for one-quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, 80 percent of deforestation, 70 percent of water use and 78 percent of ocean and freshwater pollution. This engagement theme aims to contribute to a more sustainable trajectory for the future of food.

The purpose of Thematic Engagement is to influence companies to proactively manage specific ESG risks and opportunities, as well as enabling the participating investors to play an active role in addressing material, shared sustainability challenges through raising sector and systemic standards in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda.

Our Comprehensive Thematic Engagement program combines a set of four thematic engagements in a single package: Climate Transition, Human Capital and the Future of Work, Plastics and the Circular Economy and Tomorrow’s Board. The themes have been selected to give investors the broadest possible coverage of E, S and G topics with exposure to diverse industries and companies.

Sustainalytics’ Impact Metrics is a set of company-level metrics that provide a useful measure of impact. Each metric can be used to report on at least one theme in our new Impact Framework and for at least one of the 17 SDGs.

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?