Corporate Sustainability Assessment

The S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA), first established in 1999, is an annual evaluation of companies' sustainability practices, focusing on criteria that are both industry specific and financially material.

The CSA uses a consistent, rules-based methodology that includes 61 different industries. There are approximately 100 questions for each industry, with each question falling under one of approximately 23 different themes or criteria. The criteria, in turn, fall under one of the three dimensions: Environmental ('E'), Social ('S'), and Governance & Economic ('G'). Some criteria are common across industries, while others are industry specific. The CSA generates a total ESG score for every company covered, as well as individual scores for the three dimensions, with 100 being the best score in each case.

With over 7,300 assessed companies annually, the CSA has become a reference tool for companies to gauge the financial materiality of their sustainability performance from an investor perspective and to prepare themselves to address upcoming sustainability trends. The CSA leads the field in helping companies make the link between sustainability and their business strategies.

Assessed companies receive complimentary access to a powerful online Benchmarking Database. The database facilitates a detailed assessment of your company's performance and an easy identification of key areas for improvement. Multi-year charts plot the company's performance trend as compared to its industry peers.

Service Provider Information

At S&P Global Sustainable1, we serve as the central source for sustainability intelligence from S&P Global. Sustainable1 matches customers with the ESG products, insights and solutions from across S&P Global's divisions to help meet their unique needs. Our comprehensive coverage across global markets combined with in-depth ESG intelligence provides financial institutions, corporations and governments an unmatched level of clarity to navigate the transition to a sustainable future.

Key Information

Use Cases

Corporate Executives use the CSA and its results to communicate with the growing number of sustainability-focused investors. The CSA is a tool to link a company's sustainability performance and business strategy in a convincing and credible way. The CSA is an independent benchmark for company sustainability performance relative to industry peers, and provides internal and external stakeholders with important insights into a company's sustainability performance and value drivers.

The CSA results serve a wide range of stakeholders and applications ranging from asset management to world renowned indices like the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) or the S&P ESG Index family.


Benefits

  • Develop and implement a successful and sustainable business strategy
  • Reduce sustainability risks for the company and realize opportunities
  • Meet investor and stakeholder expectations and needs
  • Get external/internal recognition for your sustainability performance
  • Embed sustainability thinking in the corporate DNA (networks)