Mind the data gap - Industry-relevant ESG disclosure levels remain low, despite rise in sustainability reporting

New ESG Book analysis shows that despite a global increase overall in sustainability reporting, many companies are insufficiently disclosing industry-relevant metrics.

• Research coincides with the launch of the firm's ESG Performance Score, a data-driven assessment of corporate sustainability performance inspired by International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) standards.
• ESG Book's analysis reveals that European companies lead global peers on ESG performance, but are falling behind on the disclosure of financially material, industry-led sustainability data.
• With markets demanding better ESG data to meet increasingly complex sustainability requirements, the ESG Performance Score is the most sophisticated new tool of its kind.
• Covering nearly 10,000 companies globally, the ESG Performance Score provides in-depth, real-time insights into material areas of sustainability performance.
• With a fully transparent methodology, the ESG Performance Score uniquely enables clients to click from each company's score to raw data and source documentation, with point-in-time history for time series analyses.

LONDON, July 20, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- ESG Book, a global leader in sustainability data and technology, today released new analysis showing that financially material, industry-relevant ESG disclosure levels remain low, despite a widespread increase in overall sustainability reporting.

The research coincides with the launch of the firm's new ESG Performance Score, a transparent, data-driven assessment of corporate sustainability performance inspired by International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) standards.

Published in June 2023, the ISSB's long-awaited new standards mark a significant global shift in financially relevant sustainability disclosure, and are seen as a new global baseline for capital markets.

ESG Book's analysis reveals that European companies currently lead global peers on sustainability performance, led by corporations in France with an average ESG Performance Score of (54.9). By comparison, U.S.-based companies on average have a score of 50.1, with Japanese companies scoring on average 49.5.¹

On a global scale, European corporations also demonstrate the highest levels of overall ESG disclosure, as the reporting landscape is rapidly shaped by emerging regulation including the EU Taxonomy and Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). Recent ESG Book analysis revealed that worldwide ESG regulations have increased by 155 percent over the past decade.

However, while European companies perform strongly in the overall disclosure of ESG-based metrics, there is a noticeable drop in their reporting of industry-relevant sustainability data. This is information that is more likely to impact the enterprise value of a corporation, and is required by investors and financial institutions for more accurate insights into material areas of sustainability performance.

ESG Book's new solution has been developed as a response to many of the current market challenges around sustainability ratings, including opacity around score methodologies and underlying data, a lack of standardisation, and the limited ability to measure industry and sector-specific metrics.

Covering nearly 10,000 listed companies worldwide, the ESG Performance Score provides an in-depth, real-time assessment of corporate sustainability through separate analytics on performance and disclosure, with more than 450 standardised and derived ESG and emissions metrics applied to each company.

With a fully transparent methodology, enabling financial institutions and corporates to gain access to the score's framework, data mapping and calculations, the ESG Performance Score uniquely allows clients to click through from the score-level to the underlying raw data and source documentation. ESG Book's solution incorporates sector specific materiality, and provides point-in-time history for time series analyses.

Dr Daniel Klier, CEO of ESG Book, said: "We are transitioning from a world of simplistic and opaque ratings to an increasingly more advanced sustainability data landscape, and moving on from the past when a single score would be used to explain how a company is performing on ESG and climate issues."

"ESG Book is leading this transformation by delivering fully transparent, traceable ESG data that is aligned with latest industry standards, and which provides a more sophisticated view of financially-material corporate sustainability performance."

"With the launch of the ESG Performance Score, we are empowering investors and corporates with a more accurate tool to determine financially material ESG risks and opportunities, and greater transparency to enable more sustainable outcomes."

Delivered through ESG Book's market-leading platform, the ESG Performance Score is available as two options: 'Core', which is a point-in-time score measuring corporate sustainability performance based on publicly available data, and 'Plus', which includes an overlay of media and NGO coverage to account for the public perception of a company's performance.

The ESG Performance Score can be used for a broad range of investment, research, and engagement purposes, including fundamental analysis, portfolio screening, and benchmarking.

ESG Book is the world's only provider of sustainability data with a real-time disclosure platform that directly connects corporates with financial institutions. With 150,000 disclosures, ESG Book's platform provides pre-populated data and analytics on public securities, as well as the ability to directly request ESG disclosures from private companies, combining public market ESG information with privately collected data.

The company serves over 100 institutional clients globally including Bloomberg, BNY Mellon, Citi, JP Morgan, HSBC, and Glass Lewis.  

1). ESG Book – ESG Performance Score – Date: January 1^st, 2023.

Visit ESG Book for more information.

About ESG Book

ESG Book is a global leader in sustainability data and technology, with a vision to transform finance through sustainability by making ESG data accessible, comparable, and transparent. ESG Book is the only provider in the world to combine a highly competitive, global sustainability dataset reported by corporates together with a disclosure platform. ESG Book's solutions are used by many of the world's largest financial brands, including Bloomberg, BNY Mellon, Citi, Dow Jones, JP Morgan, HSBC, and Glass Lewis.

Covering over 50,000 companies, ESG Book's product offering includes ESG and climate data, company-level and portfolio-level scores, and analytics tools. ESG Book's SaaS data management and disclosure platform provides access to almost 150,000 corporate disclosures, enabling companies to disclose to stakeholders in real-time against multiple frameworks. For more information, visit esgbook.com.

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