Frequently Asked Questions

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

S&P DJI ESG Scores

COMPANY BACKGROUND

1. Who is S&P Dow Jones Indices? S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI) is home to iconic

financial market indicators, such as the S&P 500? and the Dow Jones Industrial Average?. The

largest global resource for essential index-based market concepts, data, and research, it is a

major investor resource to measure and trade the markets.

ESG at S&P DJI

S&P Dow Jones Indices has been a pioneer in environmental, social, and governance (ESG)

indexing for 20 years, starting with the 1999 launch of the Dow Jones Sustainability World

Index. Today, we offer an extensive range of indices to fit varying risk/return and ESG

expectations, from core ESG and low-carbon climate approaches, to thematic and fixed income

ESG strategies.

S&P Dow Jones Indices and SAM, part of S&P Global, have a long history of collaboration since

joining forces to launch the world-renowned Dow Jones Sustainability World Index in 1999.

2. Who is SAM? SAM, part of S&P Global, provides the data that powers the globally recognized

Dow Jones Sustainability Indices, S&P 500 ESG Index, and others in the S&P ESG Index

Series. Each year, SAM conducts the Corporate Sustainability Assessment, an ESG analysis of

over 7,300 companies. The CSA has produced one of the world¡¯s most comprehensive

databases of financially material sustainability information, and serves as the basis for the

scores that govern S&P DJI ESG indices.

S&P DJI ESG SCORES

General Questions

1. What are the S&P DJI ESG Scores? S&P DJI ESG Scores are environmental, social, and

governance scores that robustly measure ESG risk and performance factors for corporations,

with a focus on financial materiality. They are a second set of ESG scores calculated by SAM, in

addition to the SAM ESG Scores that are used to define the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices

constituents.

The S&P DJI ESG Scores are the result of some further scoring methodology refinements to the

SAM ESG Scores that are the result of SAM¡¯s annual Corporate Sustainability Assessment

(CSA), a bottom-up research process that aggregates underlying company ESG data to score

levels. The scores contain a total company-level ESG score for a financial year, comprising

individual environmental (E), social (S), and governance (G) dimension scores, beneath which

S&P DJI ESG Scores

there are on average 21 industry-specific criteria scores that can be used as specific ESG

signals (see Exhibit 1).1

Exhibit 1: S&P DJI ESG Score Aspect Levels

Source: SAM. Chart is provided for illustrative purposes.

A company¡¯s total ESG score is the weighted average of all criteria scores and their respective

weights. Each individual ESG dimension score (e.g., a company¡¯s ¡°E¡± score) is the weighted

average of all criteria scores and weights within a specific ESG dimension. Total ESG scores

range from 0-100, with 100 representing best performance.

2. How can the S&P DJI ESG Scores be used? The S&P DJI ESG Scores¡ªcriteria, dimension,

or total scores¡ªcan be used for a broad range of research and investment purposes, including:

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Portfolio Exclusions/Best-in-Class Screens: Defining an investable universe by

excluding securities based on their scores to reduce exposures to reputational risk or

to allay performance, ethical, or client concerns.

ESG Integration: Analyzing the risk of low (and opportunities of high) ESG score

companies on different ESG criteria and the correlation of ESG and financial

performance.

Tilts: Targeting improved ESG performance alongside benchmark returns, or

integrating criteria-level ESG themes into other factor strategies.

Shareholder Voting and Engagement: Identifying laggards within industries to enable

targeted and evidence-based company engagements.

3. What is the coverage and history available for the scores? The S&P DJI ESG data

provides scores for companies participating in the Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA),

and those analyzed by SAM¡¯s analysts starting in 2013. Each year, approximately 3,500 of the

world¡¯s largest companies are invited to submit a response to the CSA questionnaire in order to

1

The number of criteria a company can be assigned depends on how many are material to the company, ranging from 16 to 27.

FAQ

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S&P DJI ESG Scores

gain eligibility for inclusion into the DJSI Series. Company participation rates have seen a

steady rise from the 280 initial respondents in 1999 to the 1,206 companies in 2019.

Exhibit 2: S&P DJI ESG Score Coverage Rates

8,000

Company Responses

SAM-Analyzed

7,000

6,000

Companies

5,000

6,402

4,000

3,000

3,700

3,771

2,961

3,096

864

867

948

996

1,206

2013

2014

2015

Source: SAM. Chart is provided for illustrative purposes.

2016

2017

2018

2019

2,000

2,063

2,000

818

830

1,000

0

The coverage of the S&P DJI ESG Scores for the 2019 methodology year was approximately

7,600 companies: 1,206 companies that responded to the CSA questionnaire directly, and

another 6,402 companies analyzed by SAM using publicly available company disclosures.

4. Why are ESG scores important? Our scores do not simply measure company transparency

and completeness of public reporting, but they also critically assess company performance on

ESG issues. The majority of ESG scores available on the market are skewed toward rewarding

companies that simply disclose ESG issues, irrespective of how well the company may or may

not be managing its actual performance on these matters. Our methodology accounts for both

and further rewards companies that disclose material and underreported sustainability topics

that are of growing importance to investors. For example, the Corporate Sustainability

Assessment (CSA) asks questions on topics like corporate lobbying and tax avoidance, both of

which are often underreported by companies today.

This direct engagement with companies affords us a much deeper and time-sensitive review of

how they are managing certain ESG issues, with access to real-life examples to substantiate

their performance on such matters. The methodology also incorporates Media and Stakeholder

Analysis (MSA) using real-time information to account for company controversies on an ongoing

basis.

5. When are S&P DJI ESG Scores released? Scores are annual with one data release per

company, per methodology year, with the exception of possible updates to a company score as

a result of a Media and Stakeholder Analysis (MSA) case. Scoring based on company

responses is conducted between June (the deadline for submissions) and September (when the

FAQ

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S&P DJI ESG Scores

Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) results and DJSI members are announced).

Respondents have from April to June to submit their responses. Only companies that are part of

the DJSI-invited universe are eligible for the DJSI. Additional companies are assessed after

September, using publicly available data, and results of this assessment are made available in

March before the following year¡¯s CSA invitation letters are distributed.

Exhibit 3: Annual CSA Timeline

Source: SAM. Chart is provided for illustrative purposes.

SAM has a quarterly MSA review cycle, after which scores are updated. Major MSA cases can

be raised at any time throughout the year if deemed appropriate by the SAM analyst.

Please note that timelines for 2020 reporting were adjusted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For

more information, see this update.

6. Are S&P DJI ESG Scores used in the calculation of the DJSI Series? No. The S&P DJI

ESG Scores are not used in the calculation of the DJSI Series, but the SAM Corporate

Sustainability Assessment (CSA) questionnaire responses from companies are used to derive

the SAM ESG Scores (see Exhibit 4 in question 7) that are used to define the eligibility criteria

for the DJSI. The S&P DJI ESG Scores are used in the S&P ESG Index Series.

7. What are the differences between the SAM ESG Scores and the S&P ESG Scores? While

several components of the scoring process are the same, such as the underlying research

methodology, data collection, and quality assurance, there are meaningful differences in the

scoring process between SAM ESG Scores and S&P ESG Scores. Exhibit 4 helps to distinguish

the main differences between the two types of scores.

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S&P DJI ESG Scores

Exhibit 4: Characteristics of the SAM ESG Score and the S&P DJI ESG Score

CRITERIA

SAM ESG SCORE

Underlying Research

Methodology

SAM Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA)

Calculation Agent

SAM ESG data, ratings, and benchmarking

Review Frequency

Annually (with quarterly controversy updates)

Data Collection

Quality Assurance

Company Controversy

and Risk Screening

S&P DJI ESG SCORE

Direct company participation through CSA or assessment of publicly available data by SAM

analysts

Detailed, multi-tiered quality control process according to SAM guidelines. Annual independent

third-party assurance on research and quality control process

SAM Media & Stakeholder Analysis (MSA)

Aggregation of data points by predefined CSA

methodology. Unanswered questions that are not

Question Scoring

mandatory are not scored. Mandatory questions that

are unanswered are given a score of 0. Questionlevel scores are normalized within industry.

Predefined industry CSA weights determined by SAM, based on financial materiality of

Question Weights

sustainability factors to the specific industry

Question scores are aggregated to a criteria score.

Question scores are aggregated to a

Weight of unanswered questions is redistributed

Criteria Scoring

criteria score.

among other questions within the criteria, if they are

not mandatory, to maintain criteria weights.

Predefined industry CSA weights determined by SAM, based on financial materiality of

Criteria Weights

sustainability factors to the specific industry

Criteria scores are aggregated to a dimension

score. If all questions in a criteria are unanswered,

Criteria scores are aggregated to a

Dimension Scoring

the weight of the criteria is redistributed among

dimension score.

other criteria within a dimension (environmental,

governance, and social).

Dimension weights are always preserved according to the original SAM weighting scheme,

Dimension Weights

irrespective of how criteria questions are answered.

Absolute score resulting from the weighted sum of

Absolute score resulting from the weighted

all criteria and dimension scores. Total ESG score is

Total ESG Score

sum of all criteria and dimension scores

then adjusted using distribution standardization

approaches to place scores between 0 and 100.

Relative (scores are normalized within assessed

Score Type

Absolute

SAM industry)

Source: S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and SAM. Table is provided for illustrative purposes.

Aggregation of data points by predefined

CSA methodology. Unanswered questions

are given a score of 0.

8. How does the S&P DJI ESG Score data differ from that offered by Trucost, part of S&P

Global? Trucost provides several focused carbon, environmental, and fossil fuel quantitative

data sets, often providing the absolute quantities of a specific resource used or generated by a

company. The S&P DJI ESG Scores provide scores across broader ESG criteria and

dimensions, in addition to an aggregate ESG score.

9. How can I find out more about the S&P DJI ESG Scores? For further information on the

scores and the scoring methodology, please refer to the S&P DJI ESG Score Methodology. For

information relating to licensing the S&P DJI ESG Scores, please contact your S&P DJI account

representative or visit .

Methodology

10. What is the Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA)? The CSA is a rules-based

questionnaire that provides a comprehensive and best-in-class assessment of a company¡¯s

ESG performance. The assessment focuses on financially material and industry-specific

sustainability issues that have a link to long-term financial performance. This assessment

identifies companies that are better equipped to recognize and respond to emerging

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