Information Center for Issuers

MEIs only pertain to the Comprehensive Ratings Framework.

A material ESG issue (MEI) is the core building block of the ESG Risk Rating. For Sustainalytics, an ESG issue is material if it is likely to have a significant effect on the enterprise value of a typical company within a subindustry, and if the presence or absence of an MEI in financial reporting is likely to influence the decisions made by a reasonable investor.

Material ESG issues for each subindustry are selected by Sustainalytics’ Risk Ratings Research Team. All companies assigned by Sustainalytics to a subindustry category are assessed on how well they are managing their exposure to these MEIs.

If a MEI is not relevant to a specific company’s business model, then it may be disabled.

Note that no specific predictions about financial impacts at the company level are implied by the presence or absence of a MEI.

IMPORTANT: The Core Ratings Framework does not employ MEIs. The overall company ESG Risk Rating is calculated according to the overall company exposure and management scores.

MEIs only pertain to the Comprehensive Ratings Framework. (The Core Ratings Framework does not employ MEIs. The overall Management Score is calculated by the weighted sum of the management indicator scores.)

For each MEI, the management score is a weighted sum of the management indicator scores and scored on a 0-100 scale.

Each MEI Management Score measures what percentage of a firm’s manageable risk has been managed.

For example, assuming that all of a company's exposure to risk is manageable, then an MEI management score of 80 for that MEI means the company has managed 80% of its exposure to risk.

An issue beta is a factor that assesses the degree to which a company’s exposure deviates from its subindustry’s exposure on a material ESG issue. It is used to derive a company-specific issue exposure score for a material ESG issue. It ranges from 0 to 2, with 0 indicating no exposure, 1 indicating the subindustry average, and 2 indicating exposure that is twice the subindustry average. 

Idiosyncratic Risk is additional exposure to risk caused by an issue that was not deemed material at the subindustry level but becomes a material ESG issue for a company based on the occurrence of a Category 4 or 5 event.

Companies can receive their full ESG Controversy Report upon request. Please notify the Issuer Relations Department: [email protected]

Sustainalytics' CorporYes. The six corporate governance pillars found in our Corporate Governance Rating form the baseline of our ESG Risk Rating. These pillars include board and management quality and integrity; board structure; ownership and shareholder rights; remuneration; financial reporting; and stakeholder governance. Our ESG Risk Rating includes a comprehensive view of a company’s governance structures, practices, decision-making and behaviors, and events. 

NB: While the scores of the Corporate Governance Rating are fully incorporated into the Comprehensive Ratings Framework, the Core Framework only assesses a limited number of Corporate Governance indicators. 

Companies may receive their Corporate Governance Rating Report upon request. Please notify the Issuer Relations Department: [email protected]

Sustainalytics sends an alert to issuers assigned to our Comprehensive Ratings Framework to comment on their "Management Indicators Feedback Report" as part of the annual update of the ESG Risk Rating Report. The Management Indicators Feedback Report can be downloaded from Sustainalytics' Issuer Gateway. 

Issuers should also download the Management Indicators Response Template - an Excel spreadsheet - to submit any comments they may have on the Management Indicators Feedback Report.

Issuers in our Core universe can access and review their finalized ESG Risk Rating report via the Issuer Gateway. Sustainalytics offers issuers in this universe the ability to comment on their Management Indicators by submitting a "ticket" via the Issuer Gateway. (See section Online Comments on Management Indicators). 

Please note, there is no draft review process for companies in the Core Ratings Framework. Please contact [email protected]

We invite you to access our company portal - Sustainalytics' Issuer Gateway - where you will find the following: 

• A copy of the Sustainalytics ESG Risk Rating Report.
• FAQ and methodology documents concerning ESG Risk Ratings.
• Annual update schedule and a draft Management Indicators Feedback Report (during annual update cycle –Comprehensive universe only).
• Information on the products and services offered to companies by Sustainalytics Corporate Solutions unit.

To access Sustainalytics' Issuer Gateway, please go to: https://issuergateway.sustainalytics.com/. If you have any questions, please contact Sustainalytics' Issuer Relations Team: [email protected]

Downloadable Reports

Found in the Research tab/Documents section:

• A copy of the current live version of the Sustainalytics ESG Risk Ratings. The Report, which is refreshed daily, includes a full accounting of the ESG Risk Ratings management indicator scores.

• (Comprehensive Framework only) A Management Indicators Feedback Report for use during the “annual update feedback period” that includes the preliminary findings by your Research Team for the next annual update. Sustainalytics will alert you when this feedback period has begun. If you have any questions, contact [email protected]

Companies can access these details via our company portal – Sustainalytics' Issuer Gateway – where you will find the following:

The following Sustainalytics Reports are available upon request:

• ESG Controversy Report
• Low Carbon Transition Rating 
• Global Standards Screening

If you have any questions, please contact the Sustainalytics Issuer Relations Team: [email protected]

Although both scores use a range of 0-100, a lower score in the ESG Risk Rating is better than a higher score, whereas for the ESG Rating a higher score is better than a lower score.

It is important to keep in mind that the scores were designed to capture different dimensions of a company’s ESG performance. The ESG Risk Rating score reflects how much of a company’s exposure to ESG risk is unmanaged. The ESG Rating score reflects how well a company is managing its material ESG issues.

Sustainalytics lists the overall universe, industry (equivalent of peer group in the ESG Rating) and subindustry rankings and percentiles in the ranking section on page one of the ESG Risk Rating Report.

Example of documents Sustainalytics prefers as URLs include:

Do NOT use any special characters in the document title including: [`!@#$%^*_+=[]{};':"\|,<>/?~]

If you have any questions concerning these types of documents, please contact us via our Chat Box or email: [email protected]