The Benchmark that Changed theWorld: Celebrating 20 Years of the
Dow Jones SustainabilityTM Indices
Contributors
Mona Naqvi
Senior Director
ESG Indices
S&P Dow Jones Indicesmona.naqvi@spglobal.com
Manjit Jus
Head of ESG Ratings
RobecoSAM
manjit.jus@robecosam.com

INTRODUCTION
The year 1999 gave the world the euro, The Matrix, and the world’s firstever global sustainability benchmark—the Dow Jones Sustainability Index(DJSI). The product of a landmark collaboration between S&P Dow Jones
Indices and SAM1 (now RobecoSAM), the DJSI pioneered sustainableindexing and has shaped corporate sustainability practices ever since.2 To
commemorate the 20th anniversary of the DJSI in 2019, we reflect on its
origins, its impact on the market, and the possible future of the sustainable
investing landscape. Inclusion in the DJSI is seen as a badge of honor bysustainability champions around the world. Perhaps no other benchmark
has had as profound an impact on the behavior of companies, as they seek
to secure a coveted spot in the world-renowned DJSI World each year.
Today, there are over 37,000 sustainable indices available worldwide,3 andwith a 60% increase in the number between 2017 and 2018 alone, theindustry is rapidly transforming.4 Amid this proliferation of environmental,social, and governance (ESG) benchmarking tools, the DJSI continues tomake waves as the evolving global standard for benchmarking corporate
sustainability performance, even two decades later.

1700s-1970s: THE ORIGINS OF RESPONSIBLE INVESTING
The notion of responsible investing is practically as old as investing itself.
Records date back to the 18th century, when faith-based groups such as the
Quakers and the Methodists provided guidance on “sinful” investments toavoid. To this day, faith-based strategies like Shariah-compliant investing
are offered within the broader sustainable investment framework. However,
the modern socially responsible investing (SRI) movement, as we know it,
took off in the 1960s and 1970s, for example, with the boycott, divestment,
and sanctions against South African companies during the era of apartheid.
Similar measures were adopted during the Vietnam War, culminating in the
1

Founded in 1995 as Sustainable Asset Management (SAM) and following an acquisition by Robeco in 2006, SAM was renamed
RobecoSAM in 2013. Since February 2019, “SAM” is now used to market services and products of business units within RobecoSAM,
which specialize in providing ESG data, ESG ratings, and ESG benchmarking.

2

For more information see “Celebrating 20 Years of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices.” S&P Dow Jones Indices, RobecoSAM.

3

See the Appendix for a summary of S&P DJI’s existing ESG product suite.

4

Figures according to the Index Industry Association. Source: Moreolo, Carlos. “The origin of ESG indices.” IPE International Publishers
Ltd. June 2019.

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The Benchmark that Changed the World

September 2019

establishment of the first ethical investment vehicle, the Pax World
Balanced Fund, in 1971.5 The mutual fund, which avoided investments inthe supply chains of the controversial tactical herbicide Agent Orange,
offered a channel for values-driven investors seeking to redirect theirinvestments on the basis of pacifist moral principles. Together, these
movements paved the way for a generation of socially conscious investors
seeking to affect social and political change, underscoring the ambition of“putting one’s money where one’s mouth is.”“We choose the
DJSI indices as thebenchmarks for oursustainable index
funds because of
the quality of thesustainability
research provided
by SAM and thestrong recognition of
the indices in themarket… Today, theresearch is still
considered ‘best inclass’; and theperformance of theindices is strong.”- Paul Broholm,
Director of Institutional
Solutions,
InsingerGilissen

By the 1980s, SRI had become fairly standardized in removing “sin stocks,”
such as alcohol, tobacco, weapons, and nuclear energy, from investment
portfolios. Fundamentally about values, SRI is driven by the desire to alignone’s investments with one’s beliefs. But as modern portfolio theory
suggests, excluding stocks from the opportunity set reduces potential
returns. While popular with values-driven investors, SRI thus did not gainwidespread traction among mainstream investors and was left relegated tothose willing to put their beliefs before their returns. However, the idea that
responsible companies are not only morally superior, but are also superior
in terms of financial performance was slowly starting to surface. In theearly 1970s, the New York-based journalist Milton Moskowitz published listsof “responsible” and “irresponsible” companies, tracking their performanceagainst the stock market. In 1973, he wrote in the New York Times, “I doharbor the suspicion that socially insensitive management will eventually
make enough mistakes to play havoc with the bottom line.”6 While histhinking underpinned many of the ideas behind corporate social
responsibility (CSR), it would remain largely disconnected from the typicalinvestment process until ESG investing later became widespread—in part,due to the launch of the DJSI.

1999: A WATERSHED MOMENT – THE LAUNCH OF THE DJSIIn the belief that financial analysis is incomplete without extra-financial
information, SAM was founded in 1995 as one of the world’s first asset
managers focused exclusively on sustainable investing. At the time, few
companies disclosed their exposure to ESG issues. SAM analysts began
contacting companies directly, via phone calls or written requests. While
hopeful, these initial attempts of calling individual companies to collectinformation on relatively undisclosed topics, such as company performanceon greenhouse gases or human rights, proved challenging and difficult toscale. Building on this initial ad-hoc research, the annual SAM Corporate
Sustainability Assessment (CSA) was later created, in what would soon
become one of the most robust and well-established processes for5

For more information about the Pax World Balanced Fund, see Hicks, Brian. “Socially Responsible Investing: PaxWorld Investment:
PaxWorld Continues to Up the Ante.” Green Chips Stocks. Sept. 29, 2014.

6

Townsend, Blaine. “From SRI to ESG: The Origins of Socially Responsible and Sustainable Investing.” Bailard. 2017.

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The Benchmark that Changed the World“Sustainable
investment
continues to be afocus for our clients,
and we havemanaged iShares
ETFs that track
DJSI indices formany years. DJSI
indices allow us toprovide investors
with access toopportunities forsustainable, longterm value creation,
and we look forward
to many more yearsof collaboration.”- Serkan Batir,
Head of Portfolio
Engineering Team in
Germany &Switzerland, BlackRock

September 2019

measuring corporate sustainability performance in the world.7 However, to
get to that point, the relatively young Zurich-based asset managementcompany needed the industrial clout of a globally recognized brand to get
the largest companies in the world to willingly share this information. It wasfor this reason that the founders of SAM pitched to Dow Jones Indexes(now S&P Dow Jones Indices) the idea of a global sustainability index built
upon the rich ESG data that would emerge. The result was a powerfulpartnership to create a financial product that would radically transform thesustainable investment landscape– ultimately giving rise to the Dow Jones
Sustainability Indices in 1999. SAM founder, Reto Ringger, recently said ina speech at the International University of Geneva about these early
discussions with Dow Jones Indexes that, “it was an exciting time, as
nobody had measured the sustainability performance of companies
before.”8
In the beginning, just 280 companies provided SAM with data, with 228
companies selected for inclusion in the first iteration of the index. At first, it
was a small, self-selecting group of sustainability pioneers. Transparency
was poor, and it was hard to imagine that it would develop into the leading
benchmark for corporate sustainability that it is today. Twenty years later,
nearly 1,200 companies actively participate in the SAM CSA, competing for
one of the top spots in the world-renowned DJSI. Inclusion in the index isoften regarded as a badge of honor and many companies make responding
to the CSA—which can take hundreds of hours to complete—a priority for
their business. The CSA, which has become synonymous with the DJSI, isseen as the most comprehensive assessment of extra-financial andsustainability indicators (commonly referred to as ESG today). It continues
to provide a robust methodology for measuring corporate performance andpreparedness on ESG issues. In 2019, the CSA was recognized for being
the highest quality of 11 leading ratings providers in SustainAbility’s Ratethe Raters 2019: Expert Views on ESG Ratings.

2000-PRESENT: SUSTAINABILITY IN THE AGE OF THE DJSIIn recent history, several infamous events—the Bhopal Disaster, the Exxon
Valdez oil spill, and the Enron scandal, for example—sparked growing
concerns about irresponsible business practices. Later, many would
question the long-term viability of traditional assumptions around company
value.9 Thus, the idea emerged that a company’s overall performance may
be tied to extra-financial, but financially material, issues, which helped
move the responsible investing landscape from an emphasis on “values”
7

See Naqvi, Mona and Manjit Jus. “Discover Material Insights with S&P DJI ESG Data.” S&P Dow Jones Indices. July 2019, for more
information about the SAM CSA.

8

See Ringger, Reto. “Three stories of my life.” International University of Geneva, 2019.

9

See Hopwood, Anthony, Jeffrey Unerman, and Jessica Fries. “Accounting for sustainability: Practical insights.” 2010; Eccles, Robert andMichael Krzus. “‘One Report: Integrating Reporting for a Sustainable Strategy.” New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2010; and “Creating Value:
The value of human capital reporting.” Integrated Reporting, 2015.

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The Benchmark that Changed the World“We are proud that
we have made andstayed in the indicesfor 20 years in arow. The CSA
emerged as the first
approach tomeasure the ESG
performance of
global companies ina holistic way. It
helped us to reflect
on our own
strengths andpotential, as well as
to better understandmaterialsustainability trends
and expectations.”- Anja Klieber,Senior Manager,
Investor Relations,
ESG, adidas

September 2019(as with SRI) to a broader set of relevant information than what is captured
by traditional financial metrics (that is, ESG). Furthermore, as company
value has been shown to be increasingly driven by intangible assets,10 suchas reputation and goodwill, there is greater understanding that long-term
economic value is driven by many forms of capital—including social,environmental, and human—as well as financial.11 There is also a growing
body of evidence that sustainable companies are associated with superior
stock market performance and investment returns.12 Thus, beginning with
the DJSI in 1999, there have since been several initiatives to encourage
corporate reporting on these issues.
From the establishment of the Carbon Disclosure Project (2000), UN
Principles for Responsible Investment (2006), International Integrated
Reporting Council (2010), Global Initiative for Sustainability Ratings (2011),
Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (2012), Sustainable Stock
Exchanges Initiative (2012), Montreal Carbon Pledge (2014), UN
Sustainable Development Goals (2015), France’s Article 173 (2015), Task
Force for Climate-related Financial Disclosures (2015), and the EU’s
Sustainable Finance HLEG recommendations (2018)—to name but a few—
companies have a decisive mandate to disclose their performance onsustainability criteria. Moreover, many public pension funds, particularly inEurope, have introduced mandates requiring managers to incorporate ESG
into their investment processes. This is creating a trickle-down effect that is
catalyzing an ecosystem of investors demanding greater transparency onsustainability topics from the companies they manage. The sustainable
investing landscape has thus grown tremendously in recent years to what is
now a multitrillion-dollar industry, covering multiple asset classes from
infrastructure and microfinance to public equities and sovereign bonds.
Remarkably, one-quarter of all assets under management now incorporate
ESG considerations within the investment process.13

RAISING THE BAR: THE ROLE OF THE DJSIWith the evolution of the DJSI since 1999, sustainability topics, corporate
responsibility, and public reporting have evolved, while investor
expectations have also risen. In the early days of responsible investing,10

According to Ocean Tomo (2015), more than 80% of corporate value reflected in the S&P 500® was driven by tangible assets in 1975, while
intangible assets accounted for less than 20% of the value. By 2015, these figures reversed, with intangible assets accounting for 87% of
the value of companies in the S&P 500, and tangible assets accounting for the remaining 13%.

11

See Bourdieu, Pierre. “The Forms of Capital.” pp. 241-258 in Handbook for Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, edited by
J.G. Richardson, 1986. New York: Greenwood Press.

12

See Roncalli, Thierry and Vincent Mortier. “The Alpha and Beta of ESG Investing.” Amundi Asset Management, 2019; Eccles, Robert,
Ioannis Ioannou, and George Serafeim. “The Impact of Corporate Sustainability on Organizational Processes and Performance.” Harvard
Business School, 2012; “Responsible Investment’s next decade: Developing CaIPERS Total Fund process for ESG integration.” Mercer,
2011; Fulton, Mark, Bruce Kahn, and Camilla Sharples. “Sustainable Investing: Establishing Long-Term Value and Performance.”
Deutsche Bank Group, 2012; Young In, Soh, Ki Young Park, and Ashby Monk. “Is ‘Being Green’ Rewarded in the Market? An EmpiricalInvestigation of Decarbonization and Stock Returns.” Stanford Global Project Center Working Paper, 2017; and Clark, Gordon, Andreas
Feiner, and Michael Viehs. “From the Stockholder to the Stakeholder: How Sustainability Can Drive Financial Outperformance.” Universityof Oxford and Arabesque Partners, 2015.

13

Kell, Georg. “The Remarkable Rise of ESG.” Forbes, July 11, 2018.

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September 2019sustainability roles were typically a function of communications ormarketing– largely disconnected from core business decisions in mostcompanies. CSR teams were often understaffed and underfunded
departments that much of the organization would ignore. But today, it isusually the investor relations professionals and other sustainability
champions that drive not only sustainable practices but many strategic
business decisions.
“The CSA has
definitely been partof a fundamental
change assustainability
became integrated
in our business... As
we continue todevelop oursustainability
strategy and aim to
keep raising the bar,
the CSA continues
to provide us with
helpful insights on
our strengths andweaknesses andprovides inspiration
for how to improvemeasurements andmanagement
systems.”- Hendrik Alpen,
Sustainability
Engagement Manager,
H&M

Many companies were also quick to realize that sustainable, long-termvalue creation would need to consider more than just short-term profit. As
companies understood that societal needs, the regulatory environment, andexpectations from the public were evolving, they found that they could
indeed be more successful by being more sustainable14—for instance, bypreserving the natural resources their supply chains depend on, being more
efficient in the management of their resources, attracting top talent whose
expectations increasingly include a sense of corporate responsibility,15 andproducing products sustainably to meet changing consumer preferences. It
is perhaps for this reason that the Business Roundtable notably redefinedits “Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation” in August 2019, signed by
181 CEOs, in a move away from the primacy of the shareholder and toward
a commitment to all stakeholders.16
The DJSI and the Dow Jones Industrial Average® – Two Anchors for
the Ages
The second-oldest U.S. market index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA)
is the best known of the Dow Averages and a true market icon. While thereference to “industry” in its name dates back to 1896, the DJIA maintains a
critical role in the world economy to this day. Throughout major domestic andglobal political events, wars, recessions, and countless economic cycles overthe many decades, investors have faithfully looked to The Dow ®, as it iscommonly known, as a bellwether for the rise and fall of the global economy.
Conceived a little over 100 years later, the DJSI has itself become an icon forthe measurement and advancement of ESG practices globally. At a time when
all eyes are on ESG, the DJSI World has become the “gold standard” for ESGconscious investors and for the broader investment community. With its bestin-class approach to selecting the world’s top 10% of leading sustainability
champions within industries, the DJSI World is the global reference point for
identifying the companies that are best positioned to address unprecedented
sustainability challenges for the future state of the world.

14

According to a 2017 Cone Communications CSR Study, 87% of respondents said they would purchase a product because a company
advocated for an issue they cared about, while 76% would refuse to purchase a company’s products or services upon learning it supported
an issue contrary to their beliefs. Furthermore, according to Better Business Journey, a small business consortium in the UK, “88% of
consumers said they were more likely to buy from a company that supports and engages in activities to support society.” Source: Rock,
Alycia. “What Is Corporate Social Responsibility?” The Borgen Project, 2013.

15

According to a survey by the nonprofit Net Impact, 53% of workers said that “a job where [they] could make an impact” was essential tomaintaining workplace happiness and that 35% would take a 15% pay cut to work for a company committed to CSR. Source: Meister,Jeanne. “The Future of Work: Corporate Social Responsibility Attracts Top Talent.” Forbes, 2012.

16

See Business Roundtable. “Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation.” 2019.

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The Benchmark that Changed the World“The DJSI has
transformed the way
we think about andmeasuresustainability within
our business. Eachyear the CSA
continues to evolveand challenge us tothink aboutsustainability
themes in new andimpactful ways, andoffer a frameworkwith which toengage businessleaders throughout
the organization todrive meaningfulchange. Without the
instrumental
guidance offered by
the CSA over theyears, thelandscape forsustainability would
probably be very
different indeed.”- Jaclyn Bouchard,
Global Lead, ESG
Engagement,
S&P Global

September 2019

Over the past two decades, the SAM CSA and the DJSI have been thebest-known sustainability barometers for corporations around the world.
They have helped companies to bridge the gap between their sustainability
journeys and investor demands for transparency amid the rapidly evolving
sustainability landscape. Each year, new CSA topics are added and thescoring methodology is enhanced to ensure it stays current and to push foradvances in corporate behavior and industry standards on ESG.
To this end, SAM frequently challenges companies on emerging ESG
topics that may become part of upcoming regulatory changes, reporting
guidelines, or simply the broader conversation (see Exhibit 1). For
instance, the CSA first explored company tax strategies in 2014, just as thismatter was becoming a contentious issue in corporate responsibility circles
and well before companies had started to disclose on it. Indeed, since its
inception, the CSA is often the first time a company is asked to consider asustainability topic, spurring a conversation within the company that may
lead to a change in its sustainability policies, business practices, or public
reporting.
Exhibit 1: Topics Addressed by the SAM CSA before Becoming Mainstream within ESG
TOPIC

INCORPORATED INTO
THE CSA SINCEDESCRIPTION

The Human Capital Management Coalition,
established in 2017, now includes 25 asset
owners covering USD 2.8 trillion of assets.17
Human Rights became a top ESG criterion for
Human Rights
2002
money managers in 2018, representing USD 2.2
trillion of assets.18
The TCFD published recommendations in 2017 forclimate-related financial disclosures. The initiative
Climate Strategy
2013
has the support of over 100 C-level professionals,
corporations, financial institutions, stock
exchanges, rating agencies, and index providers.19
The UN Principles for Responsible Investment
Tax Transparency 2014
guide published in 2018 recommended evaluatingand engaging on corporate tax strategy.20
Evidence emerged in 2018 that this was becoming
a top shareholder concern, due to a filing by 74
Policy Influence
2017
institutional investors aimed at 50 U.S.
companies.21
Source: RobecoSAM. Table is provided for illustrative purposes
Human Capital
Development

2002

For some companies, the CSA provided early support to help shape anddevelop internal sustainability practices. For others, it provided aframework within which to think about sustainability in regions where
regulations, investors, and consumers often lagged behind in sustainability
thinking. Meanwhile, the ongoing quest to identify and measure under17

Human Capital Management Coalition. UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust. http://uawtrust.org/hcmc.

18

www.ussif.org.

19

For more information, see the Final Report: Recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (June 2017).

20

Source: UN Principles for Responsible Investment. “EVALUATING AND ENGAGING ON CORPORATE TAX TRANSPARENCY: AN
INVESTOR GUIDE.” May 17, 2018.

21

Source: Pensions & Investments. “Investor coalition files proposals at 50-plus companies on lobbying activities.” March 9, 2018.

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The Benchmark that Changed the World

September 2019researched and underreported material ESG topics in the CSA has
prompted consistent disclosure around current sustainability themes forall.22- James Wallace,
Lead, ESG Integration,
Sustainable Solutions
and Ratings, Allianz SE

22

Exhibit 2: Historical Performance of the DJSI World
1,800
1,600
1,400

Total Returns

1,200
1,000
800
600

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

400

1999

“I believe theperception of the
DJSI, rather thanthe use haschanged over theyears… from a‘badge of honor’ tobe achieved tosomething tangible
to measure progressagainst. The [CSA]
is the toughest
rating out there tocomplete. But the
rigor of theassessment means
it’s the best insightout of all the oneson the market… Our
CEO has a specificfocus on achieving
sector leadership in
the CSA.”For investors, the DJSI provided one of the first opportunities to invest in a
subset of global companies that are leading sustainability practices within
their respective industries. Today, there are approximately USD 4.5 billion
in assets in funds or other passive products tied to the DJSI (see Exhibit 2
for historical performance).

Source: S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC. Data as of Sept. 10, 2019. Index performance based on total
return in USD. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Chart is provided for illustrative
purposes.

The impact of the DJSI on the behavior of companies and the sustainable
investing landscape is widely acknowledged within sustainability circles. In
August 2019, a group of academics from HEC Paris researched andconfirmed the value of a company being included in the Dow Jones
Sustainability Indices in a paper titled, “Do Investors Actually Value
Sustainability Indices?” The research concluded that companies that areadded to or remain within the DJSI “attract more attention from financial
analysts” and that this also “lead(s) to an increase in the percentage ofshares held by long-term investors indicative of a trend that professional
investors are paying more attention to CSR-visible firms over time.”
Additional research conducted on the Dow Jones Sustainability North
America Index in 2018 also concluded that a company’s removal from orWhen the DJSI first launched in 1999, few companies were disclosing their sustainability performance. Indeed, this was in large part theimpetus for establishing the CSA and the DJSI. By 2015, 92% of the world’s largest companies produced a CSR report, compared with just
64% in 2005, according to Meier, Stephan and Lea Cassar. “Stop Talking About How CSR Helps Your Bottom Line.” Harvard Business
Review, 2018. Meanwhile, in the U.S., 85% of S&P 500 companies had issued a sustainability report in 2017, compared with less than
20% in 2011, according to the Governance & Accountability Institute.

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addition to the index has a statistically significant impact on its stock price,
either negatively or positively, respectively.23“In 2008, weconverted our mainindex funds to follow
the Dow Jones
Sustainability
Indices and neverlooked back! For
more than 10 years,
the DJSI haveenabled us toprovide our clientswith opportunities toalign investmentswith their values andearn good returns,
all in a transparent
and cost efficientway.”- Jonathan Aalto,
Portfolio Manager,
Seligson & Co.

Indeed, the idea that long-term investors would flow more capital into theleading sustainability performers within the DJSI was a key selling pointfrom that initial pitch to create the world’s first sustainability benchmark
more than 20 years ago. However, at that time, the concept of ESG
investing did not even exist. As a groundbreaking and novel contribution to
the financial markets, the DJSI has had a profound impact—not just on
corporate sustainability performance but also, to some extent, on the way
many investors think about and ultimately define company value.

LOOKING AHEAD: WHAT’S NEXT FOR SUSTAINABLE
INVESTING?
As we consider the impact of the DJSI, it’s important to understand not just
how the landscape has changed over time, but how it may continue to
evolve. The trend toward increased efficiency and transparency in an
increasingly data-driven world has had a profound impact on all industries
and professions—to which traditional financial analysis is by no means
exempt. As a result, more and more investors are demanding real-time,
immediate access to extra-financial, but financially material, information(i.e., ESG) beyond traditional channels. As evidence continues to build thatsustainable companies are associated with better financial returns, there is
generally greater conviction in the returns to sustainable investing. The
emergence and greater transparency of corporate sustainability
performance data has made it increasingly easier for analysts to expand
the sources of information for their financial analysis.
There is also growing impetus for investors to demonstrate the real impactsof their investments and the contributions they have made toward achieving
a range of international policy commitments, from the landmark Paris
Agreement to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Thus, since theearly days of socially responsible investing, the landscape has developed,
matured, and come almost full circle—as investors once again seek to not
only integrate material non-financial information through ESG, but to also
identify measurable and lasting positive contributions for both people andthe planet, in line with scientific targets and global megatrends.
Yet ESG means different things to different investors. Thus, emerging
topics, themes, and innovations will continue to forge the future path ofsustainable investing in an unpredictable fashion. Disruptive technologies
and new modes of business are contributing to an ever-shifting landscape,while innovative solution providers are responding to some of the world’s
most pressing challenges. These solution providers operate in new23

See Hayward, Lauren. “Does the Stock Market Value Inclusion on a Sustainability Index? An Event Study Using the Dow Jones
Sustainability North America Index.” College of the Holy Cross, 2018.

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thematic areas, such as digitization, robotics, battery storage, water, andagricultural technologies, thereby offering new investment possibilities witha much more visible social or environmental impact. Therefore, while theCSA (together with the influence of the DJSI) produced the first global
sustainability scoring system, new sources of information, models, andtools—from big data, artificial intelligence, and satellite imagery—willcontinue to affect the evolving processes for determining company value.
Exhibit 3: The Possible Future of Sustainable Investing
PRESENTPOSSIBLE FUTURE

Patchy corporate disclosure

Full transparency in public reporting

ESG analysis often associated with time lags

Real-time analysis

Company filings often do not consider ESG
impacts
Policy commitments distinct from company
performance
Sustainable assets often require analysis andcertification
Traditional analysis and researchIntegrated impact reporting
International policy key performance indicatorsand standards for companies
Emergence of new sustainable asset classes
Augmented intelligence and tools

Source: S&P Dow Jones Indices, RobecoSAM. Table is provided for illustrative purposes.

Therefore, though it might seem paradoxical that the pioneers ofsustainable indexing hope the term ESG one day disappears, we expect
the notion to become redundant. As mainstream investment processes
adapt to formalize the integration of these new and emerging sources of
information, what was once reserved for sustainability-minded investors at
the margins may soon become a key part of the standard investor
framework. Perhaps even to the extent where ESG benchmarks need not
be referred to as ESG at all.

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APPENDIX: S&P DJI ESG INDICES
Since SAM and S&P Dow Jones Indices collaborated to launch the DJSI in 1999, S&P DJI continues tolead sustainable indexing solutions with a suite of more than 150 headline ESG benchmarks that
continue to shape the sustainable investing landscape. From pioneering best-in-class approaches likethe DJSI to mainstream strategies for integrating ESG across broad market benchmarks, S&P DJI
offers a variety of ESG index solutions to accommodate the diverse ESG objectives for almost every
type of investor, as highlighted by Exhibit 4.
Exhibit 4: S&P DJI ESG Indices
CATEGORYCore

ClimateDESCRIPTION

EXAMPLES

Best-in-class approaches like the DJSI that target the top 10% of
ESG performers; broad market approaches, like the S&P 500 ESG
Index, designed to closely track the benchmark with similar
risk/return profiles
Designed to address the risks and opportunities stemming fromclimate change and the low-carbon transition through carbon
reduction objectives, fossil-fuel-free strategies, and forward-looking
approaches aligned with the recommendations of the Task Force for
Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)• S&P ESG Indices• DJSI Series• S&P 500 Ex-Tobacco

Thematic

Indices that focus on specific ESG issues, often with a relatively
narrow sustainability objective

Fixed Income

Fixed income variants and a suite of indices providing access to thegreen bond market• S&P Global Carbon Efficient Indices• S&P Global 1200 Fossil Fuel Free Indices• S&P Carbon Price Risk 2030 Adjusted
Indices• S&P Long-Term Value Creation (LTVC)
Indices• S&P Global Clean Energy Indices• S&P/Drucker Institute Corporate
Effectiveness Index• Dow Jones Green REIT Indices• S&P Green Bond Indices• S&P 500 Bond Investment Grade Carbon
Efficient Index

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

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IMPORTANT LEGAL INFORMATION:
The Dow Jones Sustainability Indices are a joint product of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC (“S&P DJI”) and/or its affiliates and RobecoSAM AG(“RobecoSAM”). S&P® is a registered trademark of Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC, Dow Jones ® is a registered trademark of Dow
Jones Trademark Holdings LLC (“Dow Jones”) The trademarks have been licensed to S&P DJI and its affiliates.
RobecoSAM is a registered trademark of Robeco Holding B.V. SAM is a registered trademark of RobecoSAM AG. SAM is used to market
services and products of a business unit within RobecoSAM, which specializes in providing ESG data, ratings, and benchmarking. SAM is not
to be considered as a separate legal entity.
Inclusion of a company within a Dow Jones Sustainability Index is not a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold such company, nor is it
investment advice. Investment products based on the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices are not sponsored, endorsed, sold or promoted by
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