S&P Global
ESG Scores
Disclosure Analysis

DisclosureAnalysis
Introduction
ESG Scores are becoming increasingly sophisticated asunderlying metrics mature and scoring methodologies reflecta broader range of analytical inputs. Although corporate
disclosures on ESG are also becoming increasingly robust,
there are still significant gaps in corporate disclosures acrossa growing universe of researched companies – and thesegaps are only becoming more pronounced as ESG scores
cover companies of differing sizes and geographies. Bringing
transparency to investors on data availability and gaps inreported information is therefore key.
S&P Global has launched its “Disclosure Analysis” reportingon the Capital IQ Pro platform to provide additional colorand context to the S&P Global ESG scores. This additional

information serves to address a number of key concerns thatcurrent users of ESG information have:• What are the reasons for a company scoring low? Is it
because a company has performed poorly in the ESG
analysis or because of a lack of disclosure?
• What are the main areas of E, S and G where companies
do not sufficiently report ESG information compared totheir peers?
• What is the contribution of actual reported data to theoverall ESG score, in context of the underlying assessment
methodology with regards to required public disclosure andadditional disclosure provided by companies?

Disclosure Analysis at the dimension and underlying levels will only be available in a future release.

S&P Global ESG Scores
The S&P Global ESG Scores are built on the Corporate
Sustainability Assessment (CSA) framework, a researchmethodology that has been developed over more than 20years to assess companies not only their ESG performanceand management of financially relevant ESG issues. The CSA
uses a data-driven, quantitative approach to assessing ESG
information rather than solely trying to assess availabilityof disclosed ESG information. The latter may often not be
relevant to investors, very qualitative in nature and therefore
difficult to compare, or may be inaccurate. As a result,
the CSA has used a dual approach to collecting relevant
ESG information by supplementing public disclosure withadditional information provided directly by companies. Publicdata is used only if it meets the stringent data requirementsthat have been refined over two decades, understanding that
ESG data must always be reviewed on quality and context
rather than just on availability. Companies participatingin the CSA have the option to supplement their public
disclosure, allowing for more granular and robust information
to be collected. As a result, the S&P Global ESG scores ofcompanies actively participating in the assessment are not
only a reflection of what a company has chosen to disclose
in its publicly, which is designed to meet the needs of abroad range of stakeholders, dive deeper into metrics andquantifiable values that can help inform a more nuanced
scoring approach and peer benchmarking.

There is increasing pressure on corporates to publicly
disclose ESG information in order to drive moretransparency for investors and other stakeholders.
Regulatory developments around the world are establishingmandatory reporting of the most important and relevant ESG
topics for a large number of publicly listed companies. In thespirit of these developments, a specific set of metrics in theCSA require publicly available information to be disclosed inorder to score any points. These CSA questions are referred
to as Requiring Public Disclosure. Disclosure on topics
like Corporate Governance, Climate Strategy, or HumanRights is expected by a growing number of stakeholders.
These questions represent about one-third of the questions
covered in the CSA methodology. The remaining questions
are identified as requiring Additional Disclosure. Thesequestions split into those that reward companies withadditional points for public disclosure, but where it is
not a requirement. The remaining set of questions allow
companies to report internal information and supporting
documents. This approach of the CSA promotes increasing
disclosure, while allowing to cover topics that are emerging
and underreported today. It also allows to assess companies
on sensitive topics like cyber security or remunerationand diversity related topics as well as topics where a lackof ESG reporting standards holds companies back from
reporting publicly.

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Disclosure
AnalysisS&P Global ESG Scores
The Disclosure Analysis feature on the S&P Global Capital IQ
Pro platform allows investors to quickly identify a company’s
overall disclosure transparency as well as well as the qualityof that disclosure split into questions that require public
disclosure and those where the company provide additional
disclosure. This way it is possible to understand:• The overall level of reporting for a company vs. its industrypeers, as a quick indicator of ESG leaders and laggards interms of transparency.
• The material E, S, and G areas where a company isdisclosing less than its peers. For highly weighted ESG
areas, low disclosure can signal that a company is notadequately reporting on key, financially relevant topics.

•R eporting quality on essential ESG topics that should be
disclosed by all companies, regardless of the geography
they are headquartered in or their size. This gives anindication of how well companies are reporting on thecore ESG topics that are featured in many ESG disclosure
standards and are being discussed by regulators aroundthe world.
•H ow much data companies are reporting on beyond whatmany investors would consider the bare minimum today?
This provides an indication of how well-prepared companies
are to report to a growing number of requests across a wide
range of ESG by stakeholders in their public disclosures.
• Understanding whether a low score is a result of insufficient
disclosures or poor performance on reported information.

Methodology and Technical Approach
The Disclosure Analysis methodology is designed tohighlight key facts about the data assessed in the CSA. It
differentiates between data availability and data quality, andprovides insights into the score potential that each company
has by improving public and additional disclosure. The

analysis is done at the completion of the yearly CSA cycle
based on data that has been collected in the public domain
and supplemented by additional companies’ disclosure
through their engagement in the CSA process.

How to interpret the chart
The length of the blue bars reflects the overall weight/
score of questions in the CSA that make up the S&P Global
ESG Score that require publicly available information.. In
the example above, these questions account for 32 of themaximum 100 points that can be achieved in this industry.
The black and grey bars reflect the weight/score of questions
not requiring publicly available information for which atleast some information was available, and more importantly,

relevant for scoring as per the CSA methodology. In theexample above, the company in question received 8 of thepossibly 68 points for these questions.
The relative weight of the questions requiring public
information and those that are classified as additional
disclosure differs by industry as the CSA applies 61
industries-specific methodologies

Disclosure Analysis at the dimension and underlying levels will only be available in a future release.

Data Availability
The data availability shows the aggregate disclosure level ofa company compared to its industry peers. Disclosure levels
are divided into 5 quintiles, Very Low, Low, Medium, High andVery High. This is also calculated separately for questions
requiring public disclosures and those where additional
disclosures are accepted.

In situations where there are less than 10 companies forwhich data exists, the reporting level has been reported
across the full set of 61 industries.
Based on this example, the company has medium disclosurecompared to its industry peers.

Potential Score Contribution
This value describes the maximum overall score a company
could have achieved, if all disclosed information would have
met the requirements of the CSA methodology, resulting in ascore of 100 for each of the question.
In the example above, the available information for thecompany resulted in a score of 26 out of a maximum 100

points. If all disclosed information had been relevant for theCSA, resulting in the highest possible score in each question,
the company could have scored a maximum of 35 out of 100.
The gap of 9 points to the actual score of 26.
could be attributed to poor CSA performance on the ESG
topics disclosed by the company rather than a lack ofdisclosure on these topics.

Disclosure Level
Score Contribution: The score contribution section provides detail on the relative contribution of each ESG dimension
as it relates to questions “requiring public information” and those that are grouped under “additional disclosure”.

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