Scores for the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) are published monthly, starting in August, on every the third Friday (see CSA timeline). Companies are notified of their expected score release date at the time of selecting a participation window, or when adjusting their submission deadline, directly in the CSA Portal. S&P Global will email companies two weeks in advance to confirm the score release date. Depending on our capacity, some companies may be able to receive their scores earlier than anticipated. In rare cases a score release may be delayed due to our internal audit process, or if a company’s submission needs further clarification.
Scores are available in the “Benchmarking” tab in the CSA Portal. This is our proprietary Benchmarking Database, which allows companies to view and understand their sustainability performance in relation to their industry and/or a customized peer group.
The publication of scores in waves reduces the waiting time for companies that submitted their CSA earlier in the year. However, it also means that only a subset of invited companies has their 2023 CSA Scores available in the Benchmarking Database at the beginning of the Score release cycle. The number of companies with a 2023 CSA Score will continue to increase till all scoring is complete in March 2024. In the meantime, for companies that do not yet have an updated 2023 CSA Score the Benchmarking Database will display their 2022 CSA Score.
The provision of results while only a subset of all invited companies has been assessed is meant to provide companies with timely insights into their performance, which is useful for internal results review (as opposed to external benchmarking).
For the purposes of external benchmarking, we suggest the following key dates:
November 24, 2023: Score release at which all DJSI invited companies and most companies invited for other S&P ESG Indices will be assessed.
December 8, 2023: The annual rebalancing of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI), (if your company is eligible for inclusion)
Early February 2024: Release of the S&P Global Sustainability Yearbook, providing distinctions to top performing companies that received a 2023 CSA Score by the December 2023 score release, or earlier.
This tutorial will answer key questions and provide additional guidance on how to use the Benchmarking Database.
- How can I benchmark my company’s performance if not all scores are not updated?
- Why does the Benchmarking Database now contain a mix of 2022 and 2023 CSA Scores?
- How can I communicate my company’s performance with on-going score releases?
- How can I benchmark against the same peer group as in past years?
- When will the 2023 CSA Scores be publicly available?
- Can I infer DJSI membership based on my company’s industry position in the Benchmarking Database before DJSI membership updates are officially announced?
- How does the release of CSA Scores in waves work?
- Why can my company’s percentile rank change without a change to my company’s CSA Score?
How can I benchmark my company’s performance if not all scores are not updated?
The “Benchmarking” tab in the CSA Portal contains the CSA Scores overview table for your company for the given participation year. The table provides question-level scores, as well as additional statistics (for example: Percentile Rank, Average Score, Best Score, etc.). These statistics are specific to the selected industry/peer group. Upgrades to the free Basic version of the benchmarking database allow companies to apply additional filters to create their own benchmarks for performance comparison across regions, industries, and investment benchmarks.
Upgrades to this Basic version of the benchmarking database allow companies to apply additional filters to create their own measures for performance comparison across regions, industries, and investment benchmarks. Visit our dedicated page for more information on the Benchmarking Database functionalities and upgrades.
Companies can easily identify the share of companies with a 2023 CSA Score already available, and those for which the benchmarking statistics still rely on 2022 CSA Scores.
The following screenshots provide details on this functionality to allow companies to understand their benchmarking universe. (The numbered list below corresponds to the numbered points in the screenshots).
- Selecting the “Base Year” determines the universe of companies that your company is benchmarked against. It refers to all companies invited to be assessed in a given Methodology Year (April to March).[1]
- Identify the share of companies in the selected industry/peer group for which Base Year CSA Scores will be available, and for those which CSA Scores from the previous year will be included in the analysis. Important: the share of CSA Scores available for the Base Year and Previous Year might not add up to 100% if there are companies that were not invited in prior years and therefore do not yet have any CSA score.[2]
- Identify how many companies are in your selected industry/peer group based on the filters applied.
- Select to exclude CSA Scores from previous assessment years to view only those companies in your industry/peer group with Base Year CSA Scores.
Screenshot 1 – Filtering in the Benchmarking Database in the CSA Portal.
- Clicking on any line in the overview table will open a detailed view of scores for your peer group. Companies for which only scores for the previous year are still available will appear greyed out.
Screenshot 2 – Display of companies with Base Year scores and Previous Year scores in the overview table.
You can visit our dedicated page to find more information about the Benchmarking Database functionalities and upgrades.
Why does the Benchmarking Database now contain a mix of 2022 and 2023 CSA Scores?
The temporary mix of 2022 and 2023 CSA Scores allows us to:
- Make the 2023 CSA Scores available sooner to companies that completed the CSA earlier.
- Avoid waiting till enough companies in the current CSA methodology year (April to March) are assessed to publish a functional percentile ranking for all companies.
To publish the CSA Scores as early as possible and still provide meaningful benchmarking, especially with regards to a company’s Percentile Rank and Average Peer Group Scores, we use a company’s 2022 CSA Score (if available) as the best available estimate for their 2023 CSA Score if it is not yet available.
Users need to keep in mind that the CSA methodology is updated every year and CSA Scores from different years are not fully comparable, especially at the total or dimension level.
How can I communicate my company’s performance with on-going score releases?
Please see this tutorial for further guidance and sample statements.
For the purposes of external benchmarking we suggest the following key dates:
November 17, 2023: Score release at which all DJSI invited companies and most companies invited for other S&P ESG Indices will be assessed.
December 8, 2023: The annual rebalancing of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI), (if your company is eligible for inclusion)
Early February 2024: Release of the S&P Global Sustainability Yearbook, providing distinctions to top performing companies that received a 2023 CSA Score by the December 2023 score release, or earlier.
How can I benchmark against the same peer group as in past years?
For the purposes of external benchmarking, companies can use the following anchor dates:
November 17, 2023: Score release at which all DJSI invited companies and most companies invited for other S&P ESG Indices will be assessed.
December 8, 2023: The annual rebalancing of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI), (if your company is eligible for inclusion)
Early February 2024: Release of the S&P Global Sustainability Yearbook, providing distinctions to top performing companies that received a 2023 CSA Score by the December 2023 score release, or earlier.
Conducting a peer group comparison after the November release of 2023 CSA Scores will ensure that most index-eligible companies (DJSI as well as other S&P ESG indices) would have been assessed against the 2023 CSA methodology at this point. While this universe also changes year over year depending on index eligibility of companies, it is still a key reference point for a comparable performance overview against the previous year's CSA Score releases.
Another milestone date for benchmarking your company is in early February 2024, when we will release of the S&P Global Sustainability Yearbook. The yearbook provides distinctions for the top 15% performing companies in each industry. The eligible universe considered for the Sustainability Yearbook consists of all companies that received a 2023 CSA Score by the December 2023 score release, or earlier.
When will the 2023 CSA Scores be publicly available?
Companies will be able to familiarize themselves with their 2023 CSA Scores in the Benchmarking Database of the CSA Portal before they are made available to capital markets and the public.
Approximately two weeks after publication in the CSA Portal, the S&P Global CSA Scores will be visible across S&P Global’s subscription-based platforms including Capital IQ Pro, Xpressfeed, and our free-to-view S&P Global public website.
The S&P Global public website features CSA Scores of companies that actively participated in the CSA, as well as companies that are assessed based on public information and that are eligible for inclusion in either Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) or the S&P Global LargeMidCap Index.
Can I infer DJSI membership based on my company’s industry position in the Benchmarking Database before DJSI membership updates are officially announced?
No. Membership in any Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) is based on the DJSI methodology and cannot be inferred from a ranking in the CSA Portal’s Benchmarking Database.
Membership is limited to eligible companies and will be announced on December 8, 2023 (after 5pm EST) with the annual rebalancing of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI).
How does the release of CSA Scores in waves work?
CSA Scores based on the 2023 methodology will be released in monthly waves, depending on a company’s selected participation window, actual submission date, and on S&P Global’s capacity.
The first wave of CSA Scores based on the 2023 CSA will be released to companies in the “Benchmarking” tab in the CSA Portal on August 25th. Subsequent releases will occur on every fourth Friday of the month.
See the CSA timeline for details.
Why can my company’s percentile rank change without a change to my company’s CSA Score?
Your company’s percentile rank can be reduced if newly scored companies score higher than your company. Also, as the CSA Scores for companies (not previously included) are released, it expands the base of our calculations. The addition of companies will bring percentile ranks closer together. Unless the recently added companies have scores higher than yours, this will serve to increase your company’s percentile rank.
While we reserve the option to add more companies to the Base Year universe throughout the assessment year, most companies will have been included with the August CSA Score release (with 2022 or 2023 scores, as available).
[1] Note that the invited universe for 2023 might still be expanded.
[2] Not-scored companies could be companies that are invited to participate for the first time and have not been assessed in the past. Or if there is a share of “not scored” in past assessment years, this share refers to companies that were invited initially but then never assessed (for different reasons, e.g. de-listings).
