Find Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Data

• ESG data is a set of standards that investors, researchers, policymakers, and corporate watchdogs use to evaluate corporations' ethical (or unethical) behaviour.  ESG data can help investors find companies with values and goals that align with their own or assess the sustainability of a company beyond short-term profitability.
• The various factors ESG data measure include:
  • Environmental factors such as a company's energy use, waste and pollution contributions, or treatment of wildlife.
  • Social aspects such as how the company focuses on employee relations and diversity, health and safety, or working conditions.
  • Governance factors such as corporate policies, transparency, how a company is run, board diversity, and political lobbying activities.

• The issue of ethical investing, activist investors, and strategic divestment are major trends in the finance world today. As countries are increasingly putting a cost on carbon, there are lots of questions around the financial viability of carbon-intensive industries. ESG data provides quantified values to help make ethical and sustainable investment decisions.
• If you are conducting research on business ethic issues, sustainable business, or corporate social responsibility, ESG data will help you assess a company’s performance in these areas.
•  If you are doing company research, looking into real-world cases of corporate crisis management, or doing competitive intelligence research, ESG data will help you access past company controversies.

Online resources

Bloomberg database terminals can be found in Day Hall, Rm 101. Help instructions are available once you open the database. Note that the library no longer offers support for Bloomberg, so you may need to go to the Economics Department to ask for room access.