ESG FRAMEWORKS

There are many different ESG frameworks and industry initiatives that offer various approaches to measuring and reporting on ESG data.

Frameworks offer a broad set of principles to help stakeholders understand ESG risk and value creation. Frameworks (regulatory or voluntary) and industry initiatives help standardize ESG reporting and disclosure and help stakeholders better understand the material impacts of ESG factors on a company.

ESG Data Convergence Initiative (EDCI)

The ESG Data Convergence Initiative is a private equity industry-led effort to drive the convergence of meaningful ESG metrics and generate comparable, performance-based ESG data. The initiative strives to create a critical mass of meaningful, performance-based ESG data from private companies by converging on a standardized set of ESG metrics for private markets.

Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI)

The Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) is a United Nations-supported initiative that works to understand the investment implications of ESG factors and support its international network of signatories.

ESG4VC

ESG4VC is a non-profit organization focused on assisting venture capital firms and their portfolio companies with integrating climate, diversity, data privacy, digital rights, and cybersecurity policies and practices in order to accelerate their growth responsibly.

Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is an independent organization founded in 1997 following public outcry over the environmental damage of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. GRI created the first global standards for sustainability reporting (the GRI Standards) and is today the most commonly used reporting framework.

Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB)

The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), now part of IFRS Foundation, was founded in 2011 with a charter to help businesses, investors, insurers, creditors, and lenders develop a common language around the financial impacts of sustainability. The SASB Standards are voluntary, industry-based standards that allow stakeholders to understand financially material topics across five dimensions of ESG for 77 industries.

Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN)

The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) is the global champion of impact investing. Impact investments are investments made with the intention to generate positive, measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return. The GIIN offers the IRIS+ system to support the practice of impact investing and promote transparency, credibility, and accountability in the use of impact data for decision-making across the impact investment industry.

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a collection of 17 global goals providing a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity that covers many social and environmental topics. The goals, adopted in 2015 by all members of the United Nations, are a call for global partnership across these thematic areas and serve as a broad framework for impact reporting.

Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP)

Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is an international nonprofit organization founded in 2000 that runs a global disclosure system for investors, companies, cities, states, and regions to manage their environmental impacts. CDP gathers environmental data in a standardized manner and on a voluntary basis to inform corporate and city progress toward climate change, forests, and water security goals using its independent scoring methodology.

Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosure (TCFD)

The Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) was established to develop recommendations for more effective climate-related disclosures that could promote more informed investment, credit, and insurance underwriting decisions and, in turn, enable stakeholders to better understand the concentrations of carbon-related assets in the financial sector and the financial system’s exposures to climate-related risks.

World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA)

World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA) was established in 2018 as a new method for measuring business impact to create a more sustainable future. WBA identified seven societal and economic transformations needed to achieve the SDGs and created a series of benchmarks to measure contributions toward the SDGs. Investors, governments, individuals, and companies can use the benchmarks to understand what action is currently being taken and what more can be done to make progress toward the goals.

World Economic Forum (WEF)

World Economic Forum (WEF) is an independent international organization established in 1971 to engage business, political, and societal leaders around societal issues. WEF’s three areas of focus are mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution, solving the problems of the Global Commons, and addressing global security issues. In 2020, WEF published a set of metrics to standardize reporting around the four themes of People, Planet, Prosperity, and Principles of Governance.

Start with ESG Basics.

Take the first step in your ESG journey by learning more about the Environmental, Social, and Governance dimensions that you need to consider.

ESG Frameworks