How to Access and Interpret your CSA Results

The first score release for the 2025 S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) will take place no earlier than 18 July and continue thereafter daily.  

Target score release windows are communicated alongside participation windows and deadline extensions, directly in the Sustainability Reporting Portal, when you make your window selection or change a deadline. Depending on our capacity, some companies may 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.

 

 

Where can I find my company’s CSA Score?

Scores are available in the Sustainability Reporting Portal’s Benchmarking Database and can be accessed after logging in to the Portal. 

If you do not have access to the Sustainability Reporting Portal, please contact the CSA Helpline at csa@spglobal.com to understand whether your company has a registered account and how you may gain access.

 

 

What statistics related to my CSA Score are shared?

Scores and related statistics are visible in both a dynamic table format in the online Benchmarking Database (BDB) and downloadable as a point-in-time scorecard in Excel format. 

S&P Global provides information regarding your company’s S&P Global CSA Score at total, dimension, criterion, and question-level. Industry specific percentile ranks are also provided, to allow you to understand your company’s result in the context of your industry peers. 

Additional comparative metrics provided include the average score for your industry, best score achieved by a company in your industry, weighted gap (difference between your score and the industry best score multiplied by the score weight for the aggregation to total score), potential impact (impact on total score if a score of 100 is achieved compared to today’s score), relative to best score, and assigned scoring weight. 

All the benchmarking metrics (except the weight) are dynamic and can change throughout the assessment cycle as more scores are published within the relevant industry. Further, a company’s score (total, dimension, criterion, and/or question-level) can change, for example as corporate controversies are considered in the Media and Stakeholder Analysis (MSA) process. 

The benchmarking database includes additional information on your industry peer group ranking and related peer group scores. For more support in making the most of the Benchmarking Database, please see our video tutorials. 

 

 

Where can I find my company’s ESG Scores Report?

Located within the ‘Reports’ section of the Benchmarking Database is your company’s most recent ESG Scores Report. 

This report provides analysis of your company’s scores across the most material sustainability criteria for your sector as well as a drill down to question score level. The report opens with high-level information, including a paragraph highlighting key elements of your business, your headline scores at total and dimension levels, and company performance across the most relevant criteria in each dimension based on their weight in the assessment, and their current or expected significance for the industry.

The report goes on to detail industry drivers, the most material criteria, and the overall industry score distribution. 

Details within the ESG Scores Report are a ‘point in time snapshot’ as of the latest score release for your company. This could be the original release or any later score updates. For end of year comparison purposes, S&P Global will issue an updated ESG Scores Report at a point-in-time on 31 Dec 2025, even if your company had no updates to its 2025 score. If your company has no 2025 Score yet, no such end-of-year 2025 Report will be issued, the Benchmarking Database will reflect the most up to date information available.

 

 

What are some of the reasons my company’s CSA Score(s) decreased this year?

When looking at your 2025 CSA results, you may notice that your company’s scores dropped in some criteria, dimensions, or maybe even at the total score level. As you interpret these results, remember that the CSA methodology is updated every year and may impact around 10% of the questions within the questionnaire.

S&P Global updates the CSA annually for several reasons, including to: 

  • Reflect emerging ESG trends. This allows you as a participant to prepare for emerging issues early, which is a feature of the CSA that long-time participants value as one of the benefits of participation. Typically, the weight of a new criterion starts out low.  The questions we ask when a new topic is introduced are simple and only become more challenging over time. We may introduce a new criterion asking if you are aware of risks and opportunities in a particular emerging area or if certain internal policies exist. 

  • Align with increasing performance expectations. A typical progression the CSA is that the reporting and performance expectations tends to increase over time. In addition to the key metrics used to measure an issue – coupled with the link to your company’s business strategy – we may ask which KPIs and targets are used, whether the targets are met and whose remuneration is linked to those targets. If sufficient time series data is available, a question might change from pure disclosure scoring to also include scoring related to performance. This means that providing numbers is no longer sufficient to get a full score in the question, but the CSA methodology now is looking at trend or performance against thresholds.

  • Reflect greater demand for public disclosures. The CSA methodology distinguishes between questions that necessitate public disclosure and those for which additional disclosure beyond public reporting is enough to earn points. However, for those questions public disclosure is essential to achieve a full score. Over time, the methodology might change to require public disclosure to score any points. This is typically the case if the topics become a part of reporting standards or regulation, or as the availability of public disclosure on the topic becomes widespread in a certain industry, or as related stakeholder demand for public information on the topic increases. 

  • Remove questions that are no longer differentiating. Questions for which most companies achieve top scores are no longer distinguishing and may be eliminated from the CSA. This does not suggest or imply that the topic is no longer an important sustainability issue, it is simply no longer contributing to differentiated scoring.

 

 

How does the addition or deletion of questions impact the scoring process year over year?

The table below illustrates how different actions, like adding or removing questions and criteria impacts the weight in the aggregations of scores, as well as how scores and percentile rank may be impacted. 

A blue and white chart with black text AI-generated content may be incorrect.

Annual changes to the CSA will impact all companies the same way. This means that your industry peers may also experience a drop in score. Therefore, it is always important to look at your relative performance by considering the year-on-year changes in your company’s percentile rank at the question or higher aggregation levels.

 

 

Why does the Benchmarking Database now contain a mix of 2024 and 2025 CSA Scores?

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 2024 CSA Score (where available) as the best possible estimate for their 2025 CSA Score, if not yet published.

The temporary mix of 2024 and 2025 CSA Scores allows us to:  

  • Make the 2025 CSA Scores available sooner to companies that completed the CSA earlier.

  • Avoid waiting for all companies in the current CSA methodology year (April to March).

When analyzing your company score, you 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.

In July 2025 we will release 2025 CSA scores for roughly 10% of companies in each industry. About half of these will be active CSA participants. The share of participating companies with 2025 CSA scores should increase by about 10-20% each month. 

 

 

How can I benchmark my company’s performance if all scores are not yet updated?

The default view of the Benchmarking Database contains the CSA Scores overview table for your company for the given participation year compared to other companies as available with most recent or previous year scores. 

Companies can easily identify the share of companies with a 2025 CSA Score already available, and those for which the benchmarking statistics still rely on 2024 CSA Scores.

The following screenshots provide details on the functionality that allows companies to understand their benchmarking universe. (The numbered list below corresponds to the numbered points in the screenshots).

  1. Selecting the "Base Year” (e.g., 2025) 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 December).[1]

  2. 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 a CSA Score.[2]  Additionally, some companies may have undergone an industry change after the 2024 CSA, as a result of which their 2025 CSA Scores will only be visible in their new industry category.

  3. Identify how many companies are in your selected industry/peer group based on the filters applied.

  4. 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 Sustainability Reporting Portal. 

  1. Clicking on any line with a carrot icon in the overview table will open a detailed view of scores for your peer group. Companies for which only scores from the previous year are still available will appear greyed out.

 For communications guidance, please see our tutorial: How to Communicate your CSA Results.

 

 

How can I benchmark against the same peer group as in past years?

As companies have the flexibility to pick a participation window, S&P Global has no influence over when companies submit their 2025 CSA, and as a result, when the results become available.  It is our aim to provide companies with as much flexibility as possible.

We also understand that some companies need to have an “official” cut off date for the consideration of their score and relative industry position for external communication or even remuneration purposes.

Companies may use the following anchor dates:

End of Year 2025: S&P Global will issue an updated ESG Scores Report as of 31 Dec 2025 for all companies that have a CSA 2025 score by that date. The peer group statistics in this updated report will include the latest scores of all companies (as applicable still based on a mix of 2024 and 2025 scores). This will provide valuable, updated information especially for companies that received their ESG Scores Report early in the cycle and had no own Score updates in between.

Early February 2026: Release of the S&P Global Sustainability Yearbook, providing distinctions to top performing companies. The Yearbook provides distinctions for the top 15% of companies in each industry. The eligible universe considered for the Sustainability Yearbook consists of all companies that received a 2025 CSA Score by the end of December 2025.

 

 

Why can my company’s percentile rank change without a change to my company’s CSA Score?

Your company’s percentile rank can fluctuate if newly scored companies score higher than your company (and their 2024 score was not already higher than your company’s score). Your company’s percentile rank might also change, as the CSA Scores for companies (not previously included with a 2024 score) are released. This addition would expand the base of our calculations, and 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.

We reserve the option to add more companies to the Base Year universe throughout the assessment year3.

 

 

Are there services available to better understand my CSA results?

If you would like more detailed feedback on the results of your company’s CSA, please consider our Sustainability Benchmarking Solutions.

 

 

Important Legal Information

All information, text, data, reports, images, graphics, graphs, charts, or material, including ratings or scores (all such information, “Content”), contained in this website is the exclusive property of S&P Global Inc. or its relevant subsidiary (S&P Global), or their third-party licensors and may not be copied or reproduced in any form except with the prior written permission of S&P Global. The Content, including the ESG Scores and related materials have been published here solely for informational purposes based upon information generally available to the public and from sources believed to be reliable. S&P Global reserves the right to change a company’s ESG score from time to time, in accordance with its methodologies, policies and procedures.

Unless acting in accordance with the parameters of usage outlined in this document, the Content or any portion thereof may not be (i) modified, reverse engineered, reproduced, or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, (ii) used to create any derivative works; (iii) used as the input value or the constituent for the creation, structuring, development, calculation, maintenance, publication, distribution or any other means to derive or establish a financial index or investment strategy; or (iv) used as a component of or as the basis for corporate financing (including, without limitation, ESG-linked loans, credit facilities) or used for any investment product or financial instrument to be developed, issued, traded, sold, marketed and/or promoted, including, without limitation, a security whose capital and/or income value is calculated based on changes in value of any index or any indexed fund based on the Content in whole or in part or passively managed funds.

S&P Global is committed to providing transparency to the market through high-quality independent opinions on sustainability. Safeguarding the quality, independence and integrity of S&P Global’s ESG Scores, including by identifying and managing potential conflicts of interest, is embedded in its culture and at the core of everything S&P Global does. S&P Global keeps certain activities of its business units separate from each other in order to preserve the independence and objectivity of their respective activities. As a result, certain business units of S&P Global may have information that is not available to other S&P Global units. S&P Global has established policies and procedures to maintain the confidentiality of certain non-public information received in connection with each analytical process.

 

 

Need Help?

If you have any further questions, contact the CSA Helpline at csa@spglobal.com.

[1] Note that the invited universe for 2025 might still be expanded.

[2]Companies that have not been scored could be companies that are invited to participate for the first time this year and have not been assessed in the past. If there is a share of “not scored” companies in past assessment years, this share refers to companies that were invited initially but then never assessed (for different reasons, e.g. de-listings).

[3]S&P Global reserves the option to add more companies to the Base Year universe throughout the assessment year, thus expanding the universe of invited companies. This may impact your company’s percentile ranking.