Each year over 3,500 of the world's largest listed companies are invited to participate in the SAM Corporate Sustainability Assessment free of charge. The total sustainability score attained determines a company's inclusion in one of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices. Invited companies fall into one or more of the following groups:
“We consider the CSA to be the premier external sustainability assessment. To keep our sustainability strategy relevant into the future, Linde can’t simply look into the mirror. We need a way to be able to look into the future. The SAM assessment is one of our key tools to do that” Riva Krut, VP and Chief Sustainability Offices at Linde Plc., USA, participating in the CSA since 2003
Large privately-owned businesses, companies preparing for a stock exchange listing, or listed companies not invited for the CSA can decide to commission the assessment in order to have their corporate sustainability performance evaluated.
The sole difference between the standard DJSI process and the commissioned assessments are the assessment deadlines.
The underlying methodology and assessment approach is exactly the same for all companies participating in the CSA, making the results comparable and enabling comparison with DJSI members and other invited companies. Contact our ESG Benchmarking team to learn more.
From data to score
SAM Corporate Sustainability Assessment uses a consistent, rule-based methodology to convert an average of 600 data points per company into a total sustainability score.
Learn more about SAM's approach to Measuring IntangiblesOur services enable you to comprehensively benchmark your company's sustainability from datapoint to dimension level.
Your CSA portal - secure, online, easy-to-use
The CSA is completed via our secure and user-friendly online questionnaire platform.
The 61 industry-specific questionnaires each contain approximately 80-100 questions covering 20 different key themes. Our convenient online reporting tool substantially facilitates reporting, and after the first year of participation and can be prefilled with previous answers in subsequent years.
Our user-friendly online reporting tool (see the screenshot) allows you to:
See also: Assessment Checklist
The timeline below is for companies invited to participate in the CSA on the basis of their eligibility for a Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI). Companies that have not been invited as part of the DJSI cycle are not bound by this timeline. In either case, CSA results will not be shared with any company before the official announcement of the Annual DJSI Review in mid-September.
Due to the Covid-19 crisis, the timeline for the 2020 CSA has been amended. See the detailed 2020 timeline Detailed 2020 timeline for the most up-to-date information.