The S&P Global CSA Score measures a company’s exposure to, and performance on, key sustainability risks and opportunities, the quality and completeness of public disclosures, as well as awareness of emerging but underreported ESG issues. The scores focus on quantitative, performance-driven metrics, in addition to management programs and policies. Built upon industry-specific methodologies and weighting schemes, they capture a broad range of sustainability topics deemed material to your stakeholders. The breadth and depth of the assessment across the governance & economic, environmental, and social dimensions gives companies a unique opportunity to highlight sustainability strengths in areas that might not be covered in traditional annual reports. This results in a more accurate reflection of your company’s sustainability performance. We annually update the questionnaire to capture emerging sustainability trends and opportunities that are expected to shape a company’s competitive environment.

The starting point for the CSA is our materiality framework, which draws on more than 20 years of experience in integrating sustainability into the investment process. Material sustainability issues can significantly affect an entity's business operations, cash flows, legal or regulatory liabilities, and access to capital. They can also significantly improve or undermine an entity’s reputation and relationships with key stakeholders, society, and the environment. Over time external impacts on society and environment also translate into internal impact on a company itself, including its financial value drivers.

For each of the 62 industries evaluated through the CSA, our analysts conduct a materiality analysis to identify the sustainability factors that present a significant impact on society or the environment and a significant impact on a company’s value drivers, competitive position, and long-term shareholder value creation. This analysis results in a materiality matrix for each industry, which serves as the basis for determining the applicability and weights of the various sustainability criteria in the CSA.

The CSA is reviewed on an annual basis, and adjustments are made to the methodology to enhance reporting and stay relevant with issues already covered, and to address emerging, forward-looking sustainability issues that are expected to have an impact on companies in the near or distant future. This approach allows the CSA to address underreported topics of interest to investors and other stakeholders and to challenge companies on new sustainability topics that may be part of upcoming regulatory changes or future reporting guidelines or requirements. In this way, the CSA can also serve as a sustainability roadmap to help companies identify priority initiatives that can impact their growth.

Aligned with leading sustainability frameworks, we work with globally recognized sustainability research and reporting organizations such as the GRI, CDP, CDP Water, GRESB, and EDGE Certified Foundation to align our methodology and questions on specific topics. Not only does this help ensure that our analysis is consistent with leading sustainability research, but it also enables companies to leverage CSA responses to complete other sustainability questionnaires and vice-versa.

The CSA enables you to establish a baseline for your sustainability performance and to conduct competitive benchmarking. It helps you learn from the top-performing companies to improve the performance of your company.

Our Benchmarking Database provides an in-depth assessment of your company’s sustainability performance that allows you to monitor KPIs over time and can serve as an essential tool to improve operations and your sustainability ranking in your industry.

We facilitate your learning with:

• A benchmarking scorecard covering all criteria assessed that shows your company's sustainability performance, both in absolute and relative terms, compared to the industry average and the industry's best-in-class company.
  Download a Sample CSA Scorecard in Excel Format →

• A Benchmarking Database empowering your company to conduct multi-year trend analysis and gain detailed insight on the rankings within your peer industry.
  Benchmarking Database →

• Personalized feedback for companies interested in a more in-depth analysis of their sustainability performance. S&P Global offers different customized benchmarking solutions, including detailed qualitative and quantitative analysis and a discussion of the companies’ strengths and weaknesses compared to their industry peers.
  Customized benchmarking Solutions →

CSA results are not only an important resource to the company, but also to employees, customers, the financial community, and NGOs. The results serve a wide range of stakeholders and applications ranging from company benchmarking to indices to asset management. Participation in the CSA offers various opportunities for sharing your company’s achievements with shareholders and stakeholders.

Each year, we publish the S&P Global Sustainability Yearbook based on the results of the CSA. The top 15% of companies from each industry are included based on performance. If your company qualifies for one of these categories, you will receive the emblem for internal and external marketing and communication purposes.

Over the past 25 years, the CSA has grown into a leading corporate sustainability database. Hundreds of clients from more than 12 industries and over 50 countries directly subscribe to ESG Scores and ESG Raw Data as a key output of the CSA. This group includes financial institutions managing $35 trillion in assets who can utilize these scores and data to benchmark corporate performance, manage investment portfolios, allocate financial capital, and build engagement strategies. Additionally, ESG Scores and ESG Raw Data are integral to the sustainability and climate indices produced by S&P Dow Jones Indices, such as the S&P 500 Scored & Screened Index, further extending their reach to even more clients and market segments.

As market interest in sustainability has grown, we are working to address the demand for a holistic overview of corporate sustainability performance. Starting with the 2023 methodology year, we began to apply modeling approaches where disclosure is unavailable in the CSA to provide clients with the S&P Global ESG Scores. The S&P Global CSA Score will be a key component of the S&P Global ESG Score. The S&P Global ESG Score will include modeling approaches — but not for all questions.

Subscribers to the Capital IQ ESG Scores module can see a company’s CSA Scores and ESG Scores from the dimension level (i.e., Environmental, Social, Governance & Economic) down to the question level. Subscribers also get access to the associated guidance that is provided to participating companies within the questionnaire, and can in some cases, view the datapoints from a company’s response.

In addition, S&P Global publishes percentile rankings based on these scores on the Bloomberg Professional platform. Not only does this allow you to showcase your company’s sustainability performance to the global investment community, but it also gives data-licensees the tools to compare, analyze and identify sustainability leaders, enabling them to integrate relevant sustainability information into their investment decisions.