| Organisation | Full title | Background | Focus of standard | Strengths | weaknesses | Futures |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MSCI | Morgan Stanley Capital International) | MSCI (formerly Morgan Stanley Capital International) has been montiring social / environment and overall governance compliance in varous forms since 1990s. | Currently is core ESG screened to exclude controversial and non UN compliant eg no weapons, avoid biodiversity controversies. Note now also | Provides a focus an incentive for corporates to improve ESG and hence have access to wider investor pool Respected research team and resources | ||
| SASB | Sustainability Accounting Standards Board) | IFRS encourages organisations to adhere to SASB (Sustainability Accounting Standards Board) | To provide consistency across different industries for investor focused reporting Looking to consolidate standards across IRF the TCFD and Climate DIsclosure Standards ( CDSB) | Major includes subset of sustainability measures for 70+ industries Developed with high level of stakeholder engagement and transaprency | Fuller integration across a number of investor focused standards | |
| GRI Standards | GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) | GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) | Structured breakdown to address Universal standrds - Topic Specific - Sector Standards | |||
| CDP | CDP (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project) | “CDP” was formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project. CDP ( a non profit) solicits primarily climate-related information from companies annually by sending Climate Change, Water, and Forest Questionnaires. Companies that disclose information to CDP are assigned grades and are regularly benchmarked against their peers. CDP’s webpage is available here. | Global disclosure system for investors/companies , cities, states and regions. Addresses Environmental performance, social impact and governance | Wider scope covering local and cnetral governemt as well as corprates CDP score is a snapshot measure of disclosure and environmental performance. Widespread adoption | Relies on self reporting. Guidelines rather than defined standards and framework can be complex | |
| BRSR | Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report | India national requirement focused initially on top 1000 organisations | India national requirement focused initially on top 1000 organisations | |||
| GRESB | Global Real Estat Sustainability Benchmark | Investor focused benchmark | ||||
| IIRC | IIRC (International Integrated Reporting Council) | IIRC (International Integrated Reporting Council) | The IIRC's primary focus is on integrated reporting, which encourages organizations to provide a comprehensive picture of their value creation process. Integrated reporting emphasizes the interdependencies between financial and non-financial factors, aiming to demonstrate how these factors contribute to an organization's long-term success. | Long term focus and encourages alignment of achievment to strategic objectives | Complexity and as there is limited standardisation increased scope for subjectivity reducing ability to compare performance | |
| PRI | PRI (Principles for Responsible Investment) | PRI (Principles for Responsible Investment) | Responsible investment practices | Influential in promoting ESG integration in reporting | Lack of enforcement mechanism | |
| TCFD | TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures) | TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures) | he TCFD focuses on improving climate-related financial disclosures by providing a framework for organizations to assess and disclose climate-related risks and opportunities. Its recommendations are structured around four main areas: | |||
| IFRS | IFRS Foundation (International Financial Reporting Standards) | IFRS Foundation (International Financial Reporting Standards) | governance -strategy - risk management - metrics and targets | standardised framework with emphasis on financial implications | voluntary adoption, may be burdensome to consistently report against | |
| ISO | ISO (International Organization for Standardization) | ISO (International Organization for Standardization) | Business Sustainability - ISO 90001/31000 Environmental Sustainability ISO 14001 Social Responsibililty ISO 26000 | Highly structured approach which has proven very successful for service delivery / IT / Quality etc. | Many organisations can see this as too granular and may hamper innovations when addressing pan organisation adoption of ESG improvements | |
| World Economic Forum | World Economic Forum | The WEF often convenes leaders from various sectors including business, government, academia, and civil society to address pressing global issues, including those related to ESG. They facilitate dialogues, research, and collaboration aimed at identifying challenges and opportunities in these areas. Additionally, the WEF's annual meetings in Davos, Switzerland, serve as platforms for discussing ESG issues among global leaders. | Not a standard but looking to facilitate dialogue and drive consistency and relevance of reporting | WEF's "Global Risks Report" often highlights environmental and social risks, contributing to awareness and action on ESG issues among policymakers and business leaders. | Does not directly set standards | |
| OECD | OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) | NGO in with European Focus which has always had objectives to support encourage and empower innovations to change to improve economic growth and employment and reduce poverty and inequality. This has in recent years focus on promotion of policies for sustainable growth that balance economic, social and environmental considerations. | OECD Core set of Environmental indicators SDG Financing Lab includes data analysis on development fiannce Foreign Direct investment ( FDI) guidemlienshelp goverments investing in other countries development. | Periodic reports and analysis are highly regarded used as benchmarks and comparators . | Typically aggregated high level data | |
| CDSB | CDSB (Climate Disclosure Standards Board) | CDSB now consolidated into IFRS Foundation | ||||
| Ceres | Ceres | Ceres proactively look at various areas of Climate | Recent analyses areas include - benchmarking air emissions climate risk scorecard Deforestation scorecard | |||
| The Climate Registry | TCR - The Climate Registry | Non profit organisation that empowers organisations to be cliate leaders . Coalition of governments , buseness univercities and NGOs | Green house Gas measurement and reporting programes | US focus. | ||
| WWF | WWF (World Wildlife Fund) | WWF (World Wildlife Fund) | Not a standard but WWF endorses or encourages the adoption of specific ESG reporting frameworks that align with its conservation goals and principles. | By promoting widely recognized frameworks such as GRI, TCFD, and SASB, WWF contributes to the mainstreaming of sustainability reporting practices among companies and investors. | not a standard . Advocacy rather than codified standards | |
| UNEP FI | UNEP FI (United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative) | UNEP FI is founding memeber of a network banks, insurance and investors looking to accelerate sustainable development | Banking principles adopted by over 50% of global banking industry Principles for sustainable insurance (PSI) is being adopted major insurers to move to more dutainable insurance which aims to reduce risk, encourage innovative solutions and contribute to overall sustainability Investtment leadership Programme( ILP) provides training and working exposure to him stregic leaders implement change that underpin acheivement of sustainable finance | Foremost sustainable banking format Leading taxonomy for insurance industry | ||
| IIGCC | IIGCC (Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change) | IIGCC (Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change) | ||||
| B Lab | B Lab (B Corporation) | Non proft network looking to transform global economy created in 2006 . The pobjective is to advance a new model that moves away from concentrating wealth and moves from prioritising individualism to embrace interdependence Now covers over 5000 B corps in 84 countries | Certified B corporations are companies vierfied by B Lab to meet high standards of social and environmental performance , transparency and accountability. | a nuber of buyers are lookign for this compliance and hence achieving B Corp can improve business growth and particualry customer loyalty | Some risk company directors may be reluctant to adopt as it does increase their exposure to claims for financial dmages if decisions made not are not shown to have thoroughly addressed multi stakeholders which might constrain operational flexibiltiy Most B corps curently are smaller businesses | |
| CFA Institute | CFA Institute | CFA Institute | ||||
| Dow Jones Sustainability Indices | Dow Jones Sustainability Indices | Dow Jones Sustainability Indices | ESG Performance of organisations | Publicly recognise benchmark | Relies on self reporting, limited coverage | |
| FTSE4Good Index Series | FTSE4Good Index Series | FTSE4Good Index Series | ||||
| Bloomberg ESG Data | Bloomberg ESG Data | Bloomberg ESG Data covers over 15000 companies in 100 countries | Three main areas - Climate Solutions and sustainable finance - Regulatory reporting and complaicne - Analytics and Research | Specific score and benchmarks be used to assess both corporate and state disclousres and performance | Membership restricted data | |
| Global ESG Benchmark for Real Assets (GRESB) | Global ESG Benchmark for Real Assets (GRESB) | GlRESB are independent organisation providing validated ESG performance data and benchmarks for investors and data managers | Benchmark and assessment dta to support investors and asset owners to monitor ESG reate risks | benchmark and portfolio analysis tools Capabilities to export data | Membership restricted data | |
| ISO | International Organisation for standardisation | International standards for a wide range of business processes and products / services | Environmental and Social Standards (e.g., ISO 14001, ISO 26000 | Globally recognised | voluntary adoption , framework emphasis more than specific obligations | |
| SASB | Sustainability Accounting Standards Board) | Industry specific sustainability standards | Tailored for different industries | limited adoption |