Low Carbon Transition Rating
ESG Risk Ratings Indicator Library
Morningstar Sustainalytics uses indicators to measure a company’s performance in managing its material ESG issues. Indicators provide a systematic and consistent way of assessing clearly delineated and standardized criteria. The criteria speak to key areas of risk and benchmark a company’s performance against relevant best practices. Indicators are scored on a scale of 0 to 100.
Types of Indicators
Policy Indicators
Policy indicators measure the strength and quality of an issuer’s policy commitment to addressing a material ESG issue. One often-used policy indicator is Environmental Policy. It is part of the Management Indicator sets for several MEIs, in particular: Carbon – Own Operations, Emissions, Effluents and Waste, and Resource Use.
Programmes and Management Systems Indicators
Programmes and Management Systems indicators evaluate a company’s operational systems for managing its material ESG issues. These indicators are aligned with and reflective of recognized management systems, such as the ISO 9001 quality standard or the ISO 14001 environmental management standard. Their assessment is based on the following criteria:
- Managerial responsibility
- Risk/impact assessment
- Training or other initiatives to ensure compliance with policies
- Objectives or targets
- Monitoring and measurement
- Incident investigation and corrective action
Disclosure and Compliance Indicators
Disclosure and Compliance indicators assess whether companies are sufficiently transparent to investors about their ESG risks and management practices. Typically, they assess companies’ use of generally recognized practices, such as reporting using the Global Reporting Initiative structure and including the fulfillment of respective requirements (e.g. providing transparency on pay structures associated with ESG targets).
Performance Indicators
Performance indicators measure the effectiveness of policies, programs and management systems and are tracked yearly to show a trend over time. For example, the 'Carbon Intensity Trend' indicator tracks a company’s carbon emissions over time to provide information regarding the effectiveness of its carbon emissions reduction programs.
Sustainalytics Indicator Descriptions
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This indicator assesses a company's programmes to promote access to basic services such as energy, electricity, gas and water to poor or disadvantaged groups and of the quality of its reporting on such programmes, including details on the programmes and setting/ disclosing quantitative details.
This indicator assesses a company’s programme to promote access to health care equipment and services (excluding medicine). Access to health care measures include value-based pricing models, differential pricing models for low-income patients, product donations in developing countries and supporting voluntary licensing or waiving intellectual property rights.
This indicator assesses a company’s programmes to improve access to medicine in developing countries as well as for low-income groups in developed markets, including defining clear responsibilities and objectives, regular evaluation and reporting and engagement with stakeholders.
The indicator assesses the strength and credibility of a company's commitments to improve the access to financial services by providing microfinancing solutions to low-income households/ individuals, disadvantaged groups and small businesses set up by such individuals or groups.
This event indicator assesses incidents related to accounting irregularities as well as efforts to reduce the amount of taxes paid through tax evasion (use of illegal means to evade taxes) or tax avoidance (the use of legal means to reduce tax liabilities)
This indicator assesses a company's commitment to maintain high ethical standards in its advertising practices.
This indicator assesses a company's commitment to replace, reduce and refine animal testing (the 3Rs principle). As the outsourcing of animal testing is common, the policy should apply to both in-house and outsourced testing.
This indicator assesses a company's programmes to minimize the impact of its products and ingredient testing on animals, as well as to phase out animal testing practices. As the outsourcing of animal testing is common, the programme should apply to both in-house and outsourced tests, including internationally recognized voluntary accreditation and cruelty-free certification.
This event indicator assesses incidents related to a company’s failure to ensure the wellbeing of animals kept for human consumption, animal testing or other purposes.
This event indicator assesses incidents related to the failure of a company’s suppliers to ensure the wellbeing of animals kept for human consumption, animal testing or other purposes.
This indicator assesses a company’s commitment to prevent or reduce harmful effects on animal welfare though the management of its own operations as well as those in its supply chain.
This indicator assesses a company's initiatives to respect animal welfare standards across its business activities, including the activities of its contractors, suppliers or business partners.
This event assesses incidents related to attempts to prevent, reduce or restrict competition in a market, primarily through alleged violations of antitrust regulation.
This indicator assesses a company's performance with regard to the quality and scope of its programmes for maintaining assets, such as plants and pipelines, in a fit-for-service condition. Extending assets' remaining life in the most reliable, safest and cost-effective manner is assessed. This indicator is designed in line with ISO 55001 (a standard for any asset type) and PAS 55 (covers management of physical assets) requirements.
This indicator assesses the quality of a company's loan book by assessing the level of non-performing assets (NPAs) relative to its total assets. NPAs may comprise loans or advances that are either in default or at risk of default because borrowers have failed to make interest or principal payments for 90 days or more.
This indicator assesses the degree to which the company's audit committee possesses the financial and industry experience necessary to effectively carry out its oversight responsibilities.
This indicator assesses the percentage of independent members of the audit committee, as defined by Sustainalytics' in-house criteria for judging director independence.
This indicator assesses the strength of a company’s programmes to identify and manage biodiversity risks in its own operations. It assesses both commitments and initiatives aimed at reducing the impact on areas and species recognized as being of high natural and cultural value, such as High Conservation Value forests, peatlands and species identified as threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
This indicator assesses a company's establishment of relevant board committees and whether they are influenced by a controlling shareholder.
This indicator assesses the effectiveness of the company’s board by evaluating the independence, expertise and commitment of the board and its leadership.
This indicator assesses the quality and integrity of a company’s board by identifying whether the board of directors collectively possesses the appropriate executive experience to effectively discharge its oversight responsibilities.
This indicator assesses directors' gender representation within the board to verify whether there is gender balance. The assessment evaluates gender identities across male, female and non-binary.
This indicator assesses the strength of a company's target to ensure board gender equality.
This indicator assesses the percentage of independent directors on the board, as defined by Sustainalytics' in-house criteria for judging director independence.
This indicator assesses the quality and integrity of a company’s board by identifying whether the board of directors collectively possesses the appropriate non-executive experience to effectively discharge its oversight responsibilities.
This indicator assesses a company's commitment to reduce or eliminate instances of bribery and corruption across its business activities (including its own operations and its supply chain). A bribe includes any illegal payment from one party to another while corruption includes the abuse of entrusted power for private gain.
This indicator assesses a company's programmes to eliminate or reduce instances of bribery and corruption across its business activities (including its own operations and its supply chain).
This event indicator assesses incidents related to bribes that are paid or accepted by a company to or from government officials or other private entities to secure an unfair advantage over other companies.
This event indicator assesses incidents related to bribes or kickbacks that are paid or accepted by a company’s suppliers to government officials or other private entities to secure an unfair advantage over other companies.
This event indicator assesses incidents related to ethical violations committed by a company or its employees. This includes fraud or enabling fraud, money laundering, manipulation, misuse of power or of corporate assets, and conflicts of interest, among others.
This event indicator assesses incidents related to ethical violations committed by a company’s suppliers. This includes fraud or enabling fraud, money laundering, manipulation, misuse of power or of corporate assets, and conflicts of interest, among others.
This indicator assesses a company's initiatives to ensure that business ethics are promoted and adhered to. The indicator focuses especially on the process and implementation of its internal code of conduct, particularly on ethical issues.
This event flags companies with significant assets in Ukraine, which face business resilience risk as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
This event indicator assesses incidents related to the harmful environmental impacts of carbon dioxide emissions associated with the use of a company’s products. For financial institutions, this may include the financing of projects or companies whose products result in significant carbon dioxide emissions.
This indicator assesses a company's carbon intensity performance. It compares the direct (scope 1) and indirect (scope 2) emissions of a company in a given fiscal year to its subindustry or industry benchmark.
This indicator assesses a company's performance with regard to carbon intensity (related to power generation) by calculating the carbon emissions of a company’s own power generation portfolio (i.e. facilities within its operational control) in a given fiscal year.
This indicator assesses a company's performance, over time, on carbon intensity. It compares the change in the company's carbon intensity over its three-year average relative to the subindustry or industry change.
This indicator assesses a company's performance over time on carbon intensity related to power generation. It compares the company's carbon intensity in a given fiscal year to its own power generation portfolio (i.e. facilities within its operational control) relative to its three-year average (i.e. the last three fiscal years researched).
This indicator assesses a company's chief executive officer (CEO) remuneration compared to that of peers in the same industry group.
This indicator assesses a company's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) remuneration compared to that of peers headquartered in the same region.
This indicator assesses a company’s initiatives to ensure the ethical treatment of clinical trial participants, i.e. to safeguard the rights, safety and well-being of all trial subjects, including clear managerial responsibilities, independent ethics board and consistency of standards.
This indicator assesses a company’s commitment to adhere to ethical guidelines for clinical trials. A clinical trial is any investigation of human subjects intended to discover or verify the effects of a new medicine or medical product. Ethical guidelines aim to prevent exploitation and ensure the rights and welfare of individuals are respected while they contribute to enhancing scientific knowledge.
This indicator assesses the extent to which a company's employees are covered by collective bargaining agreements.
This indicator assesses the strength and credibility of a company's commitment to procure, distribute and/or sell sustainable foods.
This indicator assesses a company's programmes to promote long-term social and economic wellbeing across communities that may be impacted by its business activities. This includes programmes and actions that go beyond cash donations, including specific targets as well as monitoring and reporting on outcomes.
This indicator assesses a company's initiatives to consult with and maintain relations with communities that may be impacted by its business activities, including early stage and ongoing consultation initiatives, formal mechanisms to collect and resolve complaints and executive level accountability.
This event assesses incidents related to company activities that negatively impact local communities, including indigenous communities, and how companies respond to and manage conflicts with affected groups.
This event assesses incidents related to activities by a company’s suppliers that negatively impact local communities, including indigenous communities, and how a company responds to and manages conflicts with affected groups.
This indicator assesses a company's initiatives to avoid becoming complicit in illegal activities by clients, such as money laundering, tax evasion, financing of criminal activities, and violations of international sanctions.
This indicator assesses a company's commitment to eliminate the use of conflict minerals in its products and in its supply chain.
This indicator assesses a company's programmes to eliminate the use of conflict minerals in its products and its supply chain.
This indicator assesses a company's performance with regard to contract workers' safety by comparing the number of fatalities as a result of work-related injuries, over a three-year period, to pre-defined thresholds.
This indicator assesses a company's initiatives to manage the health and safety risks of contractors who operate in the company’s own facilities, including pre-screening of contractors' safety management during tendering, providing training and collecting statistics.
This indicator assesses the quality of a company's programme to incorporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues in its financial services to the corporate sector, including ESG risk assessments, monitoring and audits.
This event assesses incidents related to the quality and integrity of a company’s corporate governance structures, including the structure and oversight of its board of directors and shareholder rights and remuneration.
This indicator assesses the extent to which a company has policies or standards to integrate environmental and social factors into its credit and loan activities, adapted to industry specifics.
This indicator assesses a company's initiatives to safeguard its critical infrastructure, with a focus on mitigating risks associated with the use of operational technology (OT).
This indicator assesses a company's programmes to reduce energy, gas or water consumption by customers, including setting quantitative targets and deadlines.
This indicator assesses the quality and scope of a company's initiatives to store, transport and dispose of cyanide in a way that is safe for the environment, workers and local communities, based on the International Cyanide Management Code signatory.
This indicator assesses a company's initiatives to implement cybersecurity management controls that maintain the confidentiality, integrity and availability of its data and systems.
This event indicator assesses incidents related to breaches of customer data privacy, unauthorized disclosure, collection or use of personal data, or failure to protect customer data.
This indicator assesses a company's public commitment regarding the appropriate collection, use, disclosure and safeguarding of a consumer’s personal information (PI). It also assesses the extent to which a consumer is made aware of their privacy rights and how to exercise them.
This indicator assesses a company's effectiveness in implementing privacy management controls that reflect global trends in privacy law and best practice.
This indicator assesses a company's commitment to avoid, reduce or eliminate deforestation in its own operations and/or supply chain.
This indicator assesses a company's initiatives to mitigate deforestation in its own operations and/or its supply chain, including implementation of anti- deforestation plans, initiatives to avoid peat land clearing and fire prevention programmes, reporting on implemetation dates and milestones against the overall target.
This indicator assesses a company's commitment to prohibit workplace discrimination and ensure equal opportunity, and it is aligned with the International Labour Organization's (ILO) related conventions.
This indicator assesses a company's initiatives to strengthen workplace diversity and develop a more inclusive workforce, including having managerial or board level oversight, targets, training and guidance.
This indicator assesses a company's compliance with international standards for the ethical promotion of medicines. International guidelines, like the World Health Organization’s Ethical Criteria for Medicinal Drug Promotion, set a common interpretation of ethical behaviour in the advertising, labelling and promotion of medicine.
This indicator assesses a company's programmes related to eco-design. Eco-design refers to the inclusion of environmental aspects of its products during the research and design (R&D) stage of product or service development.
This indicator assesses a media company’s commitment to address media ethics issues by adopting policies or guidelines that govern both creating and disseminating content.
This indicator assesses a company's programmes to reduce, reuse and manage wastewater generated through a company's operational processes, prior to its release in the environment, as well the management of any incidents that might occur in relation to wastewater.
This indicator assesses a company’s initiatives to raise awareness of and manage the risks associated with electromagnetic fields (EMF) from its products or infrastructure. The indicator is particularly relevant for the telecommunications industry and companies dealing with certain electronic consumer devices.
This indicator assesses a company's programmes to mitigate and reduce risks associated with environmental emergencies. This includes spills, leaks and other operational incidents where hazardous materials are released into the environment.
This event indicator assesses incidents related to the release or improper disposal of waste, effluents or emissions (excluding carbon dioxide) into the environment.
This event assesses incidents in the supply chain related to the release or improper disposal of waste, effluents or emissions (excluding carbon dioxide) into the environment.
This indicator assesses a company's performance with regard to fatal accidents in the workplace by comparing its employee fatality rate over a three-year period against pre-defined thresholds.
This indicator assesses the average number of training days a company provides its workforce in a given fiscal year by comparing it to a pre-defined threshold.
This indicator assesses a company's performance related to permanent full-time and part-time employee retention by comparing the company's percentage of employee turnover in a given fiscal year to pre-defined thresholds.
This event indicator assesses incidents related to violations of the human rights of employees within a company's own operations. This includes incidents involving the use of forced labour, slavery and child labour, discrimination or sexual exploitation.
This event indicator assesses incidents related to violations of the human rights of workers within a company's supply chain. This includes incidents involving the use of forced labour, slavery and child labour, discrimination or sexual exploitation.
This indicator assesses the percentage a company's activities covered by an environmental management system (EMS) that has been formally certified according to a reputable international standard such as ISO 14001, the EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS), Responsible Care, etc.
This indicator assesses a company's programmes to minimize the environmental impacts of its products and packaging at their end-of-life stage.
This event indicator assesses incidents related to the poor management or excess release of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from a company’s business activities.
This event assesses incidents related to the poor management or excess release of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from business activities in a company’s supply chain.
This event indicator assesses incidents related to a product’s negative impact on the environment, as well as those related to products from a company's suppliers. Incidents may emerge as a result of lawsuits, product bans, recalls or stakeholder scrutiny due to the negative impact of a company’s product.
This indicator assesses the quality and scope of a company's existing environmental management system (EMS), including executive oversight, compliance with regulations, measurable targets and deadlines and EMS certification.
This indicator assesses a company’s commitment to manage its operations with a view to prevent, reduce or mitigate any harmful effects on the environment and natural resources.
This indicator identifies whether a financial institution (FI) is a member of the internationally recognized Equator Principles to evaluate its commitment to managing environmental and social risks associated with the projects that the FI finances.
This indicator assesses a company's incorporation of drug pricing models that ensure equitable access to medicine for countries or populations of all income levels. Equitable pricing, also known as tiered or differential pricing, is a targeted strategy intended to enhance access to medicine or medical devices through affordable pricing that is locally appropriate and implemented on a case-by-case basis.
This indicator provides an assessment of whether a company has assigned board or executive level responsibility for oversight of ESG issues. The indicator tracks whether there are specific management committees in charge of managing ESG issues across the group.
This indicator assesses a company's environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosures and the extent to which the reporting adheres to best practice guidelines or globally recognized sustainability reporting standards.
This indicator assesses a company's initiatives to ensure that its employees practice ethical conduct in direct and indirect interactions with healthcare professionals and to avoid improper marketing practices. This entails avoiding bribery or other undue influencing of doctors’ prescriptions, and providing reliable, complete and objective information about products to healthcare professionals and the general public.
This indicator assesses the mechanisms in place that enable a company to recover excess compensation from executive officers in the event of financial restatement, executive misconduct and/or malfeasance.
This indicator assesses the contribution of sales of externally certified fair trade products to annual revenues. Fair trade companies commit to pay a "fair" price to farmers and producers who are often based in developing regions. Fair trade products are often labelled and certified as such by independent third-party organizations. The most common are handicrafts, coffee, cocoa, sugar, tea, bananas, honey, cotton, wine, fresh fruit and flowers.
This event flags companies that face systemic ESG risks due to economic measures (sanctions) following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. These risks either stem from the (expected) deterioration of the Russian/Belarusian economic systems resulting from the economic measures imposed by a number of countries and supranational organizations, or from the fact that companies are targeted directly by current or potential future measures since they may enable the intensification and continuation of the armed conflict in Ukraine.
This indicator assesses a company's airline fleet age relative to the average age of fleets in its industry group.
This indicator assesses a company's performance with regard to its average fleet CO2 emissions in a given fiscal year.
This indicator assesses a company's average fleet CO2 emissions compared to the average of the three fiscal years preceding the reporting period.
This indicator assesses a company's membership in international, broadly accepted food and beverage initiatives that promote the sustainable stewardship of commodities. Relevant initiatives include: the Global Food Safety Initiative, Organic Trade Association, the Roundtable on Responsible Soy, Palm Oil, Cocoa, etc.
This indicator assesses a company's memberships of international, broadly accepted food retail initiatives that promote sustainable stewardship of commodities. Relevant initiatives include: the Global Food Safety Initiative, Organic Trade Association, the Roundtable on Responsible Soy, Palm Oil, Cocoa, etc.
This indicator assesses the proportion of a company's managed forests that are certified according to Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards or other similar certifications (e.g. Sustainable Forestry Initiative, Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification).
This indicator assesses a company's commitment to ensure that its employees have the right to associate and collectively bargain. Collective bargaining, a negotiation process between employers and employees aimed that aims to form agreements to regulate working salaries, conditions and benefits, should be permitted.
This indicator assesses the freshwater intensity of a company’s power generation assets. It compares the freshwater intensity of a company in a given fiscal year to its subindustry or industry benchmark.
This indicator assesses a company's use of wood, paper and other forest products certified according to Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards or other similar certifications (e.g. Sustainable Forestry Initiative, Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification).
This indicator assesses the strength of a company's disclosure related to its gender pay differences, measured as differences between the average pay of women and men.
This indicator assesses a company's initiatives to ensure gender pay equality. These include initiatives to identify, measure and close the gender pay gap, and are considered only within the context of gender pay gap and not as general diversity initiatives.
This indicator assesses Scope 3 Category 11 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions intensity performance by comparing the Scope 3 Category 11 emissions intensity of a company in a given fiscal year to its subindustry or industry benchmark.
This indicator assesses a company's performance, over time, on Scope 3 Category 11 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions intensity. It compares the change in the company's Scope 3 Category 11 GHG emissions intensity over its three-year average relative to the subindustry or industry change.
This indicator assesses the strength of a company's programme and associated initiatives to manage and reduce GHG emissions associated with its operational boundary.
This indicator assesses a company's initiatives to mitigate and reduce climate change related transition risks including downside risks and the release of GHG emissions. It does not include risks relating to the physical impacts of climate change.
This indicator identifies whether a company is a member of the internationally recognized United Nations Global Compact (UN Global Compact). This demonstrates a company's commitment to aligning its strategies and operations with universal principles on human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption, and to taking actions that advance societal goals.
This indicator assesses a company's commitment regarding its use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in its products.
This indicator identifies whether a company is a member of national or international initiatives that promote sustainable buildings. Examples of such initiatives include: national Green Building Councils, the International Initiative for a Sustainable Built Environment (iiSBE) and the Cement Sustainability Initiative by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.
This indicator assesses the strength and credibility of a company's commitment to build, renovate, and/ or rent certified green buildings.
This indicator assesses a company's programmes to improve the environmental performance of its own logistics activities. This includes all fleets of vehicles or logistical activities that are under the operational control of the company.
This indicator assesses a company's programmes to reduce and manage the release of GHG emissions from its outsourced logistics services. This includes all fleets of vehicles or logistical activities that are not under the operational control of the company.
This indicator assesses a company's spills, or releases of hazardous substances, such as oil. It compares a company's average spill volume in the last three years to its subindustry or industry benchmark.
The indicator assesses a company's share of revenue generated from hazardous chemicals or products including substances that can raise serious health and environmental concerns.
This indicator assesses a company's initiatives to manage substances in its products that have hazardous properties, as they may pose risks to human health and the environment. The indicator also focuses on the quality and comprehensiveness of a company’s initiatives to identifiy hazardous substances and if possible, reduce them or phase them out, replacing them with safer and more sustainable alternatives.
This indicator assesses a company's initiatives to reduce waste generated by its own operations that it defines as hazardous, or waste that bears the following characteristics: it is toxic, flammable, corrosive or reactive. The assessment does not include mineral waste management, non-hazardous waste management or nuclear waste management, as these are covered by other indicators.
This indicator assesses the percentage of a company's facilities, operating sites, or plants that are externally certified according to a reputable international health and safety (H&S) standard, such as ISO 45001 or Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards.
This indicator assesses a company's initiatives to manage employee health and safety (H&S) and prevent accidents and occupational illnesses, including regular training, establishing managerial oversight and setting related targets.
This indicator assesses a company's programmes to address HIV/AIDS among its employees and their families, including training, provision of materials and provision of antiretroviral therapy treatment. The indicator is relevant for companies with significant operations in South Africa or in other sub-Saharan African countries.
This indicator assesses a company's initiatives to recruit, retain and develop human capital to manage risks associated with skilled labour shortages or labour relations issues, including, talent development and retention initiatives and detailed reporting on risks relating to human capital management.
This indicator assesses a company's commitment to recognize and respect human rights across its business activities (including its own operations and its supply chain).
This indicator assesses a company's initiatives to respect human rights across its business activities (including its own operations and its supply chain) and to mitigate risks and impacts relating to human rights.
This indicator assesses a company's commitment to recognize and respect the rights of indigenous peoples (IPs) who may be impacted by its business activities, including respecting the right to free, prior and informed consent and seeking effective representation and participation from IPs.
This event indicator assesses incidents related to breaches of intellectual property rights, such as patents, copyright, industrial design rights, trademark, or trade secrets.
This indicator assesses a company's initiatives to waive intellectual property (IP) in certain cases, in order to enhance access to medicine, particularly in less developed countries. IP refers to patenting new products to protect a company’s proprietary inventions. A patent gives the inventor the exclusive right to produce and sell the patented products, for a limited period, in countries where authorities have recognized this patent.
This event indicator assesses incidents related to poor compensation or unfair working conditions that are raised by a company's own employees or their representatives, such as labour unions. It also includes incidents related to discrimination and harassment in the workplace.
This event indicator assesses incidents relating to poor compensation or unfair working conditions in a company's supply chain.
This event assesses incidents related to a company’s failure to adhere to sustainable land use practices, resulting in negative impacts on land or ecosystems, such as biodiversity.
This event indicator assesses incidents related to the failure of a company’s supplier to adhere to sustainable land use practices, resulting in negative impacts on land or ecosystems, such as biodiversity.
This indicator assesses the extent to which a Financial Institution (FI) meets or exceeds the Basel III regulation related to its Tier 1 Leverage Ratio. This ratio measures the core capital of an FI in relation to its total consolidated assets, capturing on- and off-balance sheet exposures. The higher the ratio, the better prepared an FI is to withstand negative shocks to its balance sheet.
This event assesses incidents related to lobbying or public spending that is perceived to violate ethical or legal standards.
This indicator assesses a company's remuneration programme to identify whether long-term remuneration incentives for its executive team are aligned to the company's long-term performance (more than one year).
This indicator assesses a company's trend with regard to its lost-time incident rate (LTIR) by comparing the LTIR in a given fiscal year to its previous three-year average (i.e., the last three years researched).
This event indicator assesses incidents related to false or deceptive marketing practices, such as using misleading or incorrect statements in promotional materials or targeting vulnerable consumers.
This event indicator assesses incidents related to breaches in editorial standards, content or general ethical principles for the media, including broadcast, print, digital and other types of media outlets.
This indicator assesses a company’s initiatives to ensure good governance, ethics and integrity throughout its content creation or dissemination activities. A company should ensure impartiality, transparency, objectivity, fairness, age-appropriateness, independence, plurality and inclusiveness in its content, topics and viewpoints.
This indicator assesses a company's commitment to prevent money laundering, an illegal process through which large amounts of criminally obtained money (e.g. from drug trafficking, terrorist activity or other crimes) appears to have originated from a legitimate source, including clear definitions, commitment to take measures and following Wolfsberg principles.
This indicator assesses a company's initiatives to focus its research and development (R&D) on diseases that are under-researched and/or where there is an unmet societal need. This includes neglected tropical diseases as well as other diseases that
disproportionally affect developing countries.
This indicator assesses a company's programmes to reduce noise levels associated with transportation activities and to manage the impact of noise on local communities, including specific targets as well as monitoring and reporting on outcomes.
This indicator assesses the percentage of independent members of the nominating committee, as defined by Sustainalytics' in-house criteria for judging director independence.
This indicator assesses a company's programmes to reduce air emissions (other than GHG emissions), such as nitrogen oxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), persistent organic pollutants, mercury or lead from its operations.
This indicator assesses a company’s nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions intensity performance. It compares the NOx emissions intensity of a company in a given fiscal year to its subindustry or industry benchmark.
This indicator assesses the strength of a company’s initiatives to address the health and nutritional value as well as the impacts of its existing and newly developed products, including setting quantitative targets and deadlines and providing evidence of monitoring.
This event indicator assesses incidents related to a company's activities that have a negative impact on workers' health and safety. These include workplace accidents, chemical contamination, diseases and labour activities that endanger employee safety.
This event indicator assesses incidents related to activities by a company’s suppliers that have a negative impact on worker health and safety. Such incidents include occupational hazards such as workplace accidents, chemical contamination, diseases and labour activities that endanger employees' safety.
This indicator assesses a company's programmes to evaluate occupiers’ satisfaction. Occupier satisfaction surveys, also known as tenant/resident satisfaction surveys, are conducted to help real estate and homebuilding companies get feedback from their occupiers to improve their products and services, and ultimately increase tenant/resident satisfaction and retention.
This indicator assesses a company's programmes to ensure well stability and integrity associated with offshore oil and gas exploration, including the inspection and testing of critical equipment and executive level oversight over well management.
This indicator assesses the contribution of food products labelled as organic to a company's annual revenues.
This indicator assesses the share of temporary workers employed by a company, compared to its total employees in a given fiscal year by comparing it to a pre-defined threshold.
This indicator assesses a company's initiatives to measure, disclose and manage the risks posed to its business by extreme weather conditions related to climate change such as tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, droughts or wildfires.
This indicator assesses a company's commitment to the responsible and ethical use of emerging technologies. Depending on its business activities, these include nanotechnology, genetic engineering, or stem cell research. Genetic engineering is the modification of genes of a host organism in order to change its characteristics and is known as a genetically modified organism (GMO).
This indicator assesses a company's commitment concerning the making of politicial contributions, whether there is clear policy prohibiting this or regulation through oversight.
This indicator identifies whether a company is a member of the internationally recognized Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). This demonstrates a company's commitment to incorporating Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues into its investment practices.
This indicator assesses a company's initiatives to manage risks related to the safety and reliability of its products and services, and ensure that they do not pose health and safety hazards to customers, including managerial oversight, regular product safety risk assessments and employee training.
This indicator assesses a company's commitment to disclose comprehensive information about the potential health consequences of its products.
This indicator assesses the percentage of a company’s operations covered by a Quality Management System (QMS) certified to ISO 9001 standards or equivalent, such as the International Air Transport Association's Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) for airlines and ISAS 9001 (International Standardization and Accreditation Services) for media companies.
This event indicator assesses incidents related to alleged quality or safety issues associated with a company’s products or services, which may result in negative impacts on the safety or wellbeing of consumers, or society.
This indicator assesses a company's programmes for managing the storage, transportation and disposal of low-level (rags, tools, clothing and filters) and medium-level (resins, chemical sludges or metal fuel cladding generated by nuclear power plants) radioactive waste. High-level radioactive waste is not considered.
This indicator assesses a company's innovation or R&D programmes to enhance efficiency or create substitutes for critical raw material inputs. A raw material input is considered critical based on reserve insufficiency, high supply concentration risk or natural stock depletion risk. This indicator excludes energy, water and petroleum-based materials.
This indicator assesses a company's initiatives to apply life cycle analysis (LCA) or a whole life carbon assessment to its new real estate projects. LCA considers the full environmental impact of a building, from construction through to disposal at the end of the building's life. The whole life carbon assessment, however, addresses only the carbon footprint of a building across its life cycle.
This indicator assesses a company’s initiatives to use recycled and/or reused (raw) materials in its manufacturing operations.
This indicator assesses a company's performance with regard to the share of recycled or reused raw materials in its manufacturing operations.
This indicator assesses the strength and credibility of a company's commitment to use recycled and re-used materials in its production process.
This indictor assesses the percentage of remuneration committee members that are classified as independent according to Sustainalytics' guidelines.
This indicator assesses a company's initiatives to increase the use of renewable energy for its own operations and quality of the renewable energy programmes. The renewable energy sources considered include solar, wind energy, hydropower, ocean and geothermal, along with the mechanisms in place to support companywide renewable energy use. Consumption from bioenergy is considered only when generated from operational by-products.
This indicator assesses the share of renewable energy used in a company's own operations. The renewable energy sources considered include solar, wind, hydropower, ocean and geothermal. Consumption from bioenergy is considered only when the raw material used to produce bioenergy is generated as a by-product while manufacturing something else.
This event assesses incidents related to the ability of financial institutions to withstand negative shocks arising from changes in economic conditions, and therefore avoid negative impacts on taxpayers and other stakeholders.
This indicator assesses a company's performance with regard to responsible investment. This implies the consideration of ESG issues into investment decisions, and encouraging sustainable business practices in the invested companies.
This indicator assesses a company's initiatives to prevent and manage gambling addiction and problem gambling among its customers, i.e. gambling that is done excessively to the point that it can negatively affect other areas of a person’s life, such as mental health and finances.
This indicator assesses a company's commitment to responsible investment practices by integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria into the investment decision-making process.
This indicator assesses a company's initiatives to integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into investment decisions, including executive or board oversight and reporting on strategy implementation.
This indicator assesses a company's commitment to market its products and services in a way that protects consumers’ best interests and promotes sustainable choices.
This indicator assesses a company's initiatives to market and sell products and services responsibly, in particular to avoid predatory lending and minimize risks to clients, including executive or board oversight, risk assessment, disclosure of risks at time of sale.
This indicator assesses a company's risk management system, with an emphasis on the board's role in the supervision of the risk management framework.
This event indicator assesses incidents related to corporate activities that result or may result in a breach of international sanctions, issued by supranational organizations or individual countries. It also assesses incidents related to sanctioned companies and companies exposed to sanctioned states, individuals, or sectoral sanctions.
This indicator assesses a company's say-on-pay programme to determine shareholders' right to vote on decisions related to executive remuneration.
This event assesses incidents related to a company's excessive use of resources (excluding water, energy and land) in its own operations or supply chain, resulting in resource depletion and threatening resource security.
This indicator assesses the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with a company's business activities, including both direct (scope 1) and indirect (scope 2 and 3) emissions.
Voluntary reporting on corporate water accounting metrics forms the foundation for understanding a company’s risks related to water and its impact on the environment and society. Depending on a company’s individual business model, it is important to understand how and where water is withdrawn from, consumed, and discharged to, as well as the percentage of water withdrawn, consumed and discharged in regions with high or extremely high baseline water stress. These water accounting metrics help understand the links between a company and its water-related impacts. A company's disclosure on water accounting metrics aids in assessing its financial risks or opportunities related to water.
This indicator assesses a company's performance with regard to airline punctuality by measuring the percentage of services, arrivals or departures that have been delayed by more than 15 minutes during the last reporting fiscal year.
This indicator assesses a company's programmes to manage the environmental and safety risks associated with the dismantling of vessels at the end of their operational life. Shipbreaking includes removing equipment and disassembling a vessel’s structure for scrapping or disposal. The activity is conducted mainly by suppliers.
This indicator assesses a company's remuneration programme to identify whether the short-term incentives for its executive team are aligned with the company's short-term (one year) performance.
This indicator assesses whether a company is a member of the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA), formerly known as the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC). This demonstrates a company's commitment to support continuous improvement in the social, environmental and ethical responsibility of its supply chain.
This indicator assesses a company's programmes to manage the end-of-life obligations of its assets, through defining and regularly reviewing the planning of the closure phase, restoration and rehabilitation measures, and practices aimed at avoiding significant environmental impact.
Social Impact of Products
This event indicator assesses incidents related to a company's direct or indirect involvement with corrupt governments, dictatorial regimes or parties that have a track record of human rights violations or are engaged in human rights abuses. This indicator also analyzes incidents regarding a company's direct or indirect activities in occupied territories and non-self-governing territories.
This event indicator assesses incidents related to a company's suppliers' direct or indirect involvement with corrupt governments, dictatorial regimes or parties that have a track record of human rights violations or are engaged in human rights abuses. This indicator also analyzes incidents regarding a company’s suppliers' direct or indirect activity in occupied territories and non-self-governing territories.
This indicator assesses a company's initiatives to manage and reduce solid waste generated through its own manufacturing process or through the provision of services. Examples of solid waste include animal waste, leftover food, clothing, paper products, appliances, food packaging, yard waste, paint, toys, and construction debris.
This indicator assesses a company’s sulphur oxide (SOx) emissions intensity performance. It compares the SOx emissions intensity of a company in a given fiscal year to its subindustry or industry benchmark.
This indicator assesses the percentage of a company’s suppliers that have an Environmental Management System (EMS) externally verified according to a reputable international standard, such as ISO 14001.
This indicator assesses a company's commitment to purchase goods and services that have a reduced environmental impact throughout their life cycle, compared to alternatives (that serve the same purpose) that would normally be purchased.
This indicator assesses a company's initiatives to address environmental issues and risks in its supply chain, including pre-screening as well as regular performance monitoring and use of binding environment clauses in contracts.
This indicator assesses a company’s initiatives to assess and improve water management practices within its supply chain.
This indicator assesses a company's initiatives to prevent and address labour rights violations within its suppliers' operations, including pre-screening, managerial responsibility and audits etc. for both first and subsequent tier suppliers.
This indicator assesses the strength and credibility of a company's commitment to sustainable agriculture.
This indicator assesses a company's programmes to support the transition to a sustainable economy through its banking and other financial services. Examples of sustainable projects and activities are corporate lending, equity or services for renewable energy projects or green product offering, such insurance policies that offer reductions for hybrid vehicles.
This indicator assesses a company’s programmes to stimulate more sustainable fisheries and/or aquaculture, including responsible sourcing, control structures to prevent the escape of non-native species from facilities, and setting of targets and deadlines. Recognized certifications, such as the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), are also considered.
This indicator assesses a company's performance with regard to its production of automobile components, solutions and technologies that improve sustainability in transport vehicles (both electric and traditional). Examples include filters, electronic parts and powertrains, as well as braking components and tires that increase fuel efficiency.
This indicator assesses a company's disclosure of products and services that have clear environmental or social benefits and the share of revenue generated from them.
This indicator assesses a company's initiatives to assess and manage any risks that could lead to a significant financial loss for the company, which could destabilize the financial system and lead to a substantial cost for society, including board oversight, risk teams independent from business lines and annual audit.
This indicator assesses a company's disclosure of qualitative aspects of systemic risk management, including risk governance, management and processes. The indicator draws on the disclosure recommendations of the Enhanced Disclosure Task Force (EDTF) of the Financial Stability Board (FSB).
This indicator assesses the percentage of a company’s tailings storage facilities that have been externally certified according to reputable international standards.
This indicator assesses a company's tailings management programmes, including policies, procedures, governance and initiatives that help reduce the volume of tailings and prevent catastrophic failures.
This indicator assesses a company's tax disclosure against international best practices.
This indicator assesses a company's programme to securely plan, develop and maintain the technology products that it commercializes and/or supplies to other organizations.
This indicator assesses how well a company can withstand financial stress and remain solvent. The common equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio measures a Financial Institution's (FI) core equity capital (common equity shares and retained earnings, excluding preferred shares or non-controlling interests) relative to its risk-weighted assets.
This indicator assesses a company's performance with regard to electric power transmission losses between sources of supply and points of distribution, as well as in the distribution to consumers (and including pilferage).
This indicator assesses a company's disclosure of its lobbying and political expenses, which are defined as spending related to the company's political engagement activities, aimed at influencing laws and regulations.
This indicator assesses a company's disclosure of its lobbying and political expenses, which are defined as spending related to the company's political engagement activities, aimed at influencing laws and regulations.
This indicator assesses the scope of a company’s disclosure of clinical trial data in credible and publicly available databases or peer reviewed journals. A clinical trial is any investigation on human subjects to discover or verify the effects of a new product. While clinical trial data disclosure is legally required in some countries, for some types of trials, the indicator rewards companies that go beyond legal compliance.
This indicator assesses a company's initiatives to incorporate environmental and social criteria into its core insurance underwriting practices, including procedures and guidelines, exclusion based on ESG factors and executive or board oversight.
This indicator identifies whether a company is a member of the internationally recognized United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), indicating its commitment to mobilize finance for sustainable development.
This indicator assesses a company's disclosure of year-on-year changes in drug prices for its US product portfolio, including the percentage change in average list drug price across the portfolio, as well as significant individual list price changes within the portfolio.
This indicator assesses a company's initiatives to incorporate value-based, as opposed to volume-based, health care models. While a volume-based approach focuses on the volume of products or services sold, a value-based approach focuses on the actual value delivered to clients.
This indicator assesses a company's disclosure of whether its ESG reporting has been externally verified in accordance with a recognized assurance standard. Both the scope of verification and the level of assurance for the report are assessed.
This indicator assesses a company's programmes related to aligning shareholders' voting power with their economic investment.
This indicator assesses a company’s water withdrawal intensity performance. It compares the water withdrawal intensity of a company in a given fiscal year to its subindustry or industry benchmark.
This indicator assesses a company’s performance, over time, on water withdrawal intensity. It compares the change in the company's water withdrawal intensity over its three-year average relative to the subindustry or industry change.
This indicator assesses a company's initiatives to manage physical, regulatory and reputational water related risks within its own operations.
This indicator assesses the strength and credibility of a company's commitment to water stewardship.
This event indicator assesses incidents of excessive water use associated with a company’s operations, or activities in water scarce areas.
This event indicator assesses incidents of excessive water use associated with a company’s suppliers, or activities by suppliers in water scarce areas.
This event indicator assesses incidents related to the production or sale of weapons that are subject to arms export regulations, or otherwise controversial weapons, as well as the sale of weapons to countries that are especially prone to armed conflict and human rights violations.
This indicator assesses the quality and scope of a company's mechanisms for reporting illegal or unethical actions, including disclosure of the number of reports received, actions taken and investigation mechanisms.
This indicator assesses a company's commitment to a threshold of maximum hours its employees can work in a day or a week, and whether that commitment is aligned with the International Labour Organization's (ILO) related conventions.