Most of us primarily think of ISS as a proxy advisor, but it’s also been not-so-quietly building its ESG business since acquiring oekom research last year. According to a recent announcement, ISS ESG (the “responsible investment arm of ISS”) now employs nearly 400 people and offers a slew of new products:
– Climate research & impact services – to help investors “reflect & vote their views on a company’s climate-change risks, disclosure & performance”
– Indexing services – for investors who want to build turnkey or custom indexes
– Publication of a broad range of data about 7800 companies on the “FactSet” marketplace – which aggregates data & analysis from many vendors for investors to access
– Absolute & relative ESG rankings of companies – see our “ESG” Practice Area for more info on the types of ratings & methodologies
I’ve blogged that State Street already uses ISS data in its “R-Factor” scoring. And to further appeal to investors, the press release says that ISS is showing how its ratings align with the SASB reporting framework:
ISS ESG has mapped its ESG Corporate Rating against the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board’s (SASB) industry standards to identify the degree of alignment and completion of accounting standards and performance ratings. The mapping shows meaningful alignment with the SASB view on the relevance of ESG performance information for investors and the status of ESG materiality within the rating.
Furthermore, a mapping of the ESG Corporate Rating methodology against the recent EU taxonomy proposal also showed great alignment, enabling investors to prepare and align their investments towards the EU taxonomy objectives.
-Liz Dunshee, TheCorporateCounsel.net September 20, 2019
