Companies, in response to investor and regulatory pressure to maximise long-term value, have long looked at the ESG impacts of their activities or the ESG-related risks to their business – or both.

What is lacking is an all-round assessment of not just the double materiality of impacts and risks but also the systems and strategies that companies have in place to mitigate the impacts and manage the risks.

Scope’s ESG Performance Score is the answer.

Our original approach to assessing corporate ESG performance is centered on the three dimensions of impact, risk and strategy. The advantages of our 3D analysis are clear in our new study of the sustainability performance of Germany’s DAX40 companies (see table below).

"We go a step further with our 3D approach"

“The double-materiality approach requires integrating assessments of a company’s impact on the environment and society and the risks to the business from ESG factors,” says Wendy Fernandez, director at Scope ESG.

“However, we go a step further with our 3D approach,” says Fernandez. “What is vital is analysis of how companies manage those impacts and risks – in essence, their sustainability strategy – hence the extra value of ESG Performance Score to sustainability managers, investors and other corporate stakeholders.” 

Visit the ESG Performance Score home page. Get a free preliminary ESG Impact Score as an introduction to the full ESG Performance Score. Sign up for the Scope ESG Performance Score webinar at 11:30 CET on 6 November.

A 3D view of corporate sustainability in line with ESG regulations

Companies gain two key benefits from Scope’s analysis of both ESG-linked impacts and risks and strategies for addressing them. First, they show stakeholders how they are creating value sustainably. Secondly, they align with ESG disclosure requirements such as the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR).

To showcase Scope’s comprehensive, company-specific assessments, the leading European rating agency assessed companies in Germany’s DAX40 benchmark index and ranked them by the three core sustainability indicators.

Sound risk management crucial component of top-scoring DAX companies

The ESG Performance Score ranking provides a clear and objective measure of each company’s sustainability performance, rather than a relative comparison among peers. Scope’s assessments of impact, risk, and mitigation leads to a final “Earth Score” ranging from “Transformative” for the best performing companies through “Positive”, “Neutral”, “Limited” and “Poor” for the worst.

A Transformative score reflects the most favorable grade, indicating leadership in ESG practices and a commitment to driving positive change. Conversely, a Poor score represents the least favorable grade, signifying substantial negative impacts with minimal mitigation efforts.

For more details on how ESG Performance Score works, the ranking of the top 20 DAX companies by ESG performance, and case studies showing how Deutsche Telekom and Beiersdorf scored, please download the full report.

Visit the ESG Performance Score home page.

Get a preliminary ESG Impact Score