CSRHub Blog Research on ESG metrics and comments on sustainability best practice

Join us for a free webinar on September 26, 2018 with two of the field's foremost sustainability practitioners – global trainers and consultants on CSR strategy and reporting – and designers of the world’s largest database of ‘external’ Sustainability/ESG ratings. Sean Flynn, Founder of One 4 All CSR, and Cynthia Figge, CEO and Cofounder of CSRHub and Cofounder of EKOS International, provide insight into sustainability tools for benchmarking company CSR performance, and "lessons learned” on CSR ratings improvement.

During the Webinar: Improve Business Performance through Sustainability Benchmarking on September 26^th, 2018: 

Participants will learn how to benchmark and diagnose company ratings and rankings, pinpoint ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) gaps, manage ESG raters and stakeholders, and receive guidance on how to improve your CSR performance.

If you have been publishing a Sustainability/CSR Report for several years or want to get started, and wonder how to improve the perception of your CSR performance, this webinar will address:

• Ratings landscape (who they are and what they do)
• Aggregated big data from 550 expert data and ratings sources for consensus view from stakeholders
• How to compare the performance of your company to your peers and competitors by using benchmarking dashboard tools
• Hotspot corporate and supply chain risks
• Manage ESG ratings fatigue
• Ways to leverage your public reporting to improve your ESG analyst ratings

Register Today

CSRHub provides access to the world’s largest corporate social responsibility and sustainability ratings and information.  It covers over 18,400+ companies from 135 industries in 133 countries. By aggregating and normalizing the information from 550 data sources, CSRHub has created a broad, consistent rating system and a searchable database that links millions of rating elements back to their source. Managers, researchers, API partners and activists use CSRHub to benchmark company performance, learn how stakeholders evaluate company CSR practices, and seek ways to improve corporate sustainability performance. 

Our friends at FB Heron recently published a summary of how they arrived at their current ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) investment process.  It should be interesting for anyone who is trying to bring ESG factors into their own framework.

Six years ago when Heron declared its intention to invest 100% of its assets for mission, they needed to find new ways to track and visualize the portfolio as it changed over time.

As is true for many foundations, FB Heron invests both directly and via outside managers.  The article starts with a four box screening system that sought to remove “bad” companies and portfolios and focus investment on “good” ones.  We then see that there is a broad distribution of good and bad performance—even after this type of screening. 

The largest segment of their endowment is invested in publicly traded companies, so it was extremely important to find a data partner that had social performance data on that universe. Heron works with a few data providers to do so, including CSRHub, oekom, and others.

Heron uses CSRHub’s percentile rankings to help keep comparisons consistent and account for inherent differences across industries. The 0%-100% score can be applied to all of their corporate holdings. 

Heron uses the CSRHub scores of the commonly associated benchmarks (like the S&P 500). The weighted average helps them get a sense of how much of the fund was allocated to higher scoring companies, relative to the benchmark.

Heron has attempted to convert their scoring into a -5 to +5 scale. For now, the percentile scores are scaled so the average enterprise (50^th percentile) receives a score of 0. They believe this scale is overly simplistic — however view it as a step in the right direction. Heron has achieved “relative” goodness—a distribution that is markedly superior to that of the market.  But, it continues to struggle with “outliers.”

Please see the FB Heron piece for their thought leadership in forming their evolving portfolio.

Bahar Gidwani has built and run large technology-based businesses for many years. Bahar holds a CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) and was one of the first people to receive the FSA (Fundamentals of Sustainability Accounting) designation from SASB. Bahar worked on Wall Street with Kidder, Peabody, and with McKinsey & Co. He has founded several technology-based companies and is a co-founder of CSRHub, the world’s broadest source of corporate social responsibility information. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and an undergraduate degree in physics and astronomy. He plays bridge, races sailboats, and is based in New York City.

CSRHub provides access to the world’s largest corporate social responsibility and sustainability ratings and information.  It covers over 18,400+ companies from 135 industries in 133 countries. By aggregating and normalizing the information from 550 data sources, CSRHub has created a broad, consistent rating system and a searchable database that links millions of rating elements back to their source. Managers, researchers, API partners and activists use CSRHub to benchmark company performance, learn how stakeholders evaluate company CSR practices, and seek ways to improve corporate sustainability performance.

One of the gurus of ESG investing has recently launched a new service for financial advisors (FAs) who want to integrate Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors into their investment process.  He has created a site called “Sustainable Investing” and filled it with content about ESG investing.  Those who subscribe (there is a three month free trial option) get a quarterly newsletter and access to some otherwise hidden research reports.

The site’s author is Henry Shilling, who until recently led Moody’s sustainability 

research efforts. I believe there are several reasons it has been difficult for FAs to bring ESG into their work. (Henry was also one of CSRHub’s beta testers and an early subscriber.)  During his time at Moody’s, Mr. Shilling performed several seminal studies that connected ESG factors with corporate long-term financial performance and risk.  I recall taking so many notes during one of his talks at an S-Networks “Summer in the City CSR Investing Summit” that the fellow next to me told me to stop.  My laptop keyboard clicks were making too much noise and he also wanted to hear Henry speak.

• The available ESG data sets are too expensive for many FAs to afford.
• ESG data sets are complex and hard for advisors to navigate and understand. They focus on detail over substance and have “holes” in their data that make comparisons difficult.
• FA clients have personal biases and views that demand client-specific adjustments. The correct portfolio of one client may not fit the needs of an FA’s other clients.
• Clients have expected (and FAs have promised) that ESG-oriented portfolios will outperform those that do not take corporate social responsibility considerations into account. ESG funds have more or less performed in line with the market—but most of those currently offered have not been around that long.  We have not seen yet an ESG fund show consistent multi-year outperformance.

Henry has stated publicly that he believes investors and their advisors who care about ESG issues should seek to earn only market rate returns.  I agree with him.  He and I both believe that it is possible to construct a market-performing portfolio of investments that reflects a client’s personal values, if one uses a broad enough initial investment universe.  Henry’s new site is an attempt to provide practical advice and tools for implementing these ideas.

Bahar Gidwani has built and run large technology-based businesses for many years. Bahar holds a CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) and was one of the first people to receive the FSA (Fundamentals of Sustainability Accounting) designation from SASB. Bahar worked on Wall Street with Kidder, Peabody, and with McKinsey & Co. He has founded several technology-based companies and is a co-founder of CSRHub, the world’s broadest source of corporate social responsibility information. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and an undergraduate degree in physics and astronomy. He plays bridge, races sailboats, and is based in New York City.

CSRHub provides access to the world’s largest corporate social responsibility and sustainability ratings and information.  It covers over 18,052+ companies from 135 industries in 133 countries. By aggregating and normalizing the information from 556 data sources, CSRHub has created a broad, consistent rating system and a searchable database that links millions of rating elements back to their source. Managers, researchers, API partners and activists use CSRHub to benchmark company performance, learn how stakeholders evaluate company CSR practices, and seek ways to improve corporate sustainability performance.

CSRHub is pleased to announce it has formed a partnership with The National Wildlife Federation (NWF). The NWF is the United States' largest private, nonprofit conservation education and advocacy organization, with over six million supporters, and 51 state and territorial affiliated organizations (including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands).

CSRHub is the world's largest sustainability business intelligence database. CSRHub’s ratings and tools help professionals benchmark, screen supply chains, evaluate, and improve company sustainability performance.

See how The National Wildlife Federation works with CSRHub as an important part of the careful vetting process used to qualify their corporate partners.

"We are grateful for the excellent work of NWF and very proud to partner with this leading and important organization.” Cynthia Figge, CEO and Cofounder, CSRHub.

Learn more about CSRHub services.

CSRHub provides access to the world’s largest corporate social responsibility and sustainability ratings and information.  It covers over 18,000+ companies from 135 industries in 133 countries. By aggregating and normalizing the information from over 556 data sources, CSRHub has created a broad, consistent rating system and a searchable database that links millions of rating elements back to their source. Managers, researchers, API partners and activists use CSRHub to benchmark company performance, learn how stakeholders evaluate company CSR practices, and seek ways to improve corporate sustainability performance. 

The National Wildlife Federation, America’s oldest and largest conservation organization, works across the county to unite Americas from all walks of life in giving wildlife a voice. The organization has been on the front lines for wildlife since 1936, fighting for the conservation values that are woven into the fabric of the nation’s collective heritage.

Republished with Earth911.com permission.

Consumers have access to corporate sustainability and social responsibility reporting they can use to select the companies they can trust to act ethically. With the rise of "big data" and transparency, there is more information on which to base a smart buying decision than ever before. Cynthia Figge, co-founder and CEO of CSRHub.com, a Seattle-based website that rates and ranks companies based on environmental and social responsibility, joins Mitch Ratcliffe to discuss what CSR reports cover, why business has learned sustainability is good for their bottom line, and how consumers can begin to access CSR data -- including on Earth911.com

Listen to "Earth911.com Interviews: Cynthia Figge, CSRHub.com" on Spreaker.

Cynthia Figge is a forerunner and thought leader in the corporate sustainability movement who co-founded EKOS International in 1996, one of the first consultancies integrating sustainability and corporate strategy. Cynthia is CEO and Cofounder of CSRHub. Cynthia has worked with major organizations including BNSF, Boeing, Coca-Cola, Dow Jones, and REI to help craft sustainability strategy integrated with business. She was an Officer of LIN Broadcasting/McCaw Cellular leading new services development, and started a new “Greenfield” mill with Weyerhaeuser. She serves as Advisor to media and technology companies, and is Chair of the Board of Compassionate Action Network. Cynthia has an MBA from Harvard Business School. Cynthia is based in the Seattle area.

CSRHub provides access to the world’s largest corporate social responsibility and sustainability ratings and information.  It covers over 17,900 companies from 135 industries in 133 countries. By aggregating and normalizing the information from 556 data sources, CSRHub has created a broad, consistent rating system and a searchable database that links millions of rating elements back to their source. Managers, researchers, API partners and activists use CSRHub to benchmark company performance, learn how stakeholders evaluate company CSR practices, and seek ways to improve corporate sustainability performance.