How are the CSA Results Used?

Overview

The S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment is the robust research process that underpins the S&P Global ESG Scores. The S&P Global ESG Score measures a company’s performance on and management of material ESG risks, opportunities, and impacts informed by a combination of company disclosures, media and stakeholder analysis, modelling approaches, and in-depth company engagement.

The S&P Global ESG Score is a relative score measuring a company’s performance on and management of ESG risks, opportunities, and impacts compared to their peers within the same industry classification.

The S&P Global ESG Score uses a double materiality approach whereby a sustainability issue is considered to be material if it presents 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.

In addition to receiving an S&P Global ESG Score, companies receive the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) Score, which is the S&P Global ESG Score without the inclusion of any modelling approaches.

S&P Global CSA Scores are used for benchmarking, reporting, index creation, and more.

Use of CSA results by different stakeholders

Use of CSA results by Corporations

The CSA converts intangible aspects of a company's sustainability performance into tangible scores. Assessed companies receive free access to a powerful online Benchmarking Database, which provides insight into your company's performance against industry peers. Read more on Benchmarking.

Additionally, many companies are provided S&P Global ESG Research reports via the Sustainability Portal.

To see any past scores and/or current reports for your company, first register your company for the Sustainability Portal here.

Use of CSA results by the Financial Community

Thousands of asset managers, investors, and financial institutions use the CSA results directly and indirectly via:

1. S&P Global ESG Scores
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.

2. Bloomberg Percentile Rankings
Since 2016, percentile rankings of all assessed companies are available to a growing number of mainstream and ESG-focused investors.

3. Indices
CSA results are used in the creation of the Dow Jones Best-in-Class Indices family of indices, the S&P Scored & Screened Index family as well as indices that use scores at the criteria level like the S&P Long-Term Value Creation Index. These indices are licensed to asset managers and other institutions as the basis of index-linked investment products.

Use of CSA results by Nonfinancial Stakeholders

Tens of thousands of non-financial stakeholders ranging from academia and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to customers and (future) employees are interested in the sustainability performance of companies and use The Sustainability Yearbook as a credible, independent source of information. NGOs, Individuals, HR professionals, and consultants form a large share of the 200,000+ annual visitors to the online database.

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