NEW YORK, Nov. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- S&P Global today announced that companies participating in the 2020 Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) will receive access to their S&P Global ESG Scores at the question level for the first time. The question-level scores are derived from the responses to approximately 100 questions and sub-questions on the CSA.

Firms that have completed the CSA will be able to review their performance at the more granular question level for the first time beginning on November 13, 2020. Previously, participating entities were restricted to seeing their aggregated criteria-level scores. Companies will initially have access to their individual scorecards, while the ability to benchmark scores against industry peers will be added through the CSA Portal's Benchmarking Database in 2021.

"Companies are completing the CSA at record rates, as investors and other stakeholders drive the demand for material ESG information," said Evan Greenfield, Global Head of ESG at S&P Global. "We are excited to provide participants with a new level of insight into the depth and rigor of the CSA process, and we are confident that corporate participants will derive substantial benefits from this new way of assessing their own sustainability practices and benchmarking against their peers."

S&P Global received detailed responses from 1,386 companies for the 2020 edition of the CSA, a 19% increase from participation rates in 2019. A well-established standard for evaluating sustainable practices within corporations, the CSA consists of a rigorous questionnaire assessing both public and confidential data submitted by participants. Since 1999, the resulting scores from the CSA have fed a variety of sustainability benchmarks including the flagship Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) and S&P 500 ESG index. The results of the 2020 CSA and the rebalancing of the DJSI will be announced on November 13, 2020. 

While the most significant increases in CSA participation this year came from the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, and China, the highest number of participants were based in the Asia-Pacific region, followed by Europe. Industry sectors that contributed to the growth in CSA participation included semiconductors, financial services and mining.

Independent recognition of the quality and rigor of the CSA process continues to grow. In SustainaAbility's Rate the Raters 2020 report, the CSA scored the highest for ESG Ratings Quality in interviews with investors and highest for ESG Ratings Usefulness in a survey of ESG experts.

To learn more about the CSA methodology and results, visit the CSA page on the S&P Global website. S&P Global ESG Scores on over 7,000 companies are available through S&P Global Marketplace.

About S&P Global:
S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI) is the world's foremost provider of credit ratings, benchmarks and analytics in the global capital and commodity markets, offering ESG solutions, deep data and insights on critical economic, market and business factors. We've been providing essential intelligence that unlocks opportunity, fosters growth and accelerates progress for more than 160 years. Our divisions include S&P Global Ratings, S&P Global Market Intelligence, S&P Dow Jones Indices and S&P Global Platts. For more information, visit www.spglobal.com.

Media Contacts

Ola Fadahunsi
Senior Director, Communications, S&P Global
+1 212 438 2296
ola.fadahunsi@spglobal.com 

Christopher Krantz
Communications Lead, S&P Global
+44 20 7176 0060
christopher.krantz@spglobal.com

SOURCE S&P Global