ISS ESG Corporate Rating Data (on 6200 listed companies worldwide)

Through its ESG Corporate Rating, ISS ESG provides investors with a highly relevant, material and forward-looking ESG performance assessment. The rating methodology is based on an absolute best-in-class approach, evaluating company sustainability performance including ESG risks, opportunities and impact along the corporate value chain. The areas and indicators assessed are influenced by several factors such as international norms and conventions, social debate, regulatory changes and technological progress. In order to analyze a company’s management of ESG issues within its core business, ISS ESG’s sector specialists select a set of about 100 criteria from a pool of over 800 indicators available in ISS ESG’s database. Whereas a standard set of around 30 universal ESG topics is assessed for all companies, the vast majority of indicators are sector-focused, helping to ensure that the most material issues have a significant influence on the overall rating result. The cumulative weighting of the sector-focused indicators accounts for at least 50 percent of the overall rating. Furthermore, the social and environmental dimensions of the rating are weighted according to ISS’ industry classification system, which is based on the environmental and social impact of particular sectors. The overall analysis is graded on a twelve-point scale from A+ (the company shows excellent performance) to D- (the company shows poor performance). “Prime” status is granted to those companies achieving best in class ESG performance, based on the sector exposure to environmental, social and governance impacts. The threshold for “Prime” status is based on absolute performance expectations which differ by industry. The ESG Corporate Rating universe currently covers over 9,700 corporate issuers, including some 6,800 listed companies and 2,900 assigned corporate issuers across approximately 60 sectors. This coverage also includes more than 140 non-listed corporate bond issuers and additional small & mid-caps drawn from sectors with strong links to sustainability (e.g. renewable energies, recycling, and water treatment). ISS ESG’s Corporate Ratings data is primarily sourced from publicly available information, including a company’s own disclosure and reporting, proxy statements, reputable news, governmental and international institutions, recognized international or local non-governmental organizations, and non-biased subscription databases such as the CDP. During the rating process, considerable importance is attached to the dialogue with the company under evaluation. Every other year, ISS ESG provides companies with the opportunity to comment on and add to the provisional findings by submitting a draft rating report to the company for revision. After the period of consultation, the report is finalized, integrating the comments and additions that are deemed appropriate by the analyst in charge of the rating. Data is used by a broad range of institutional investors, asset managers, asset owners, fund managers, banks, government institutions, universities and research firms.