ISS ESG to Present Latest Responsible Investment Solutions at PRI in Person

PARIS & MUNICH (September 9, 2019) – At this year´s PRI in Person conference, ISS ESG, the responsible investment arm of Institutional Shareholder Services, is highlighting its latest offerings that collectively provide for an integrated end-to-end solution for institutional investors. ISS ESG offers an industry leading suite of solutions that allow investors to execute on varied responsible investment strategies and to align with existing and forthcoming regulatory requirements. Drawing on comprehensive research expertise to deliver corporate and country ratings, climate data, governance and controversy research, that is combined with ISS´ deep proxy voting expertise, ISS ESG clients enjoy a truly turn-key solution.

ISS´ESG business unit is comprised of approximately 380 team members, of which about 200 are research analysts. It continuously carries through on the expansion of its ESG Rating coverage universe and will reach 10,000 issuers by the end of October. During this past year, ISS ESG has also delivered to market cutting-edge solutions, including:

• The Custom Climate Policy Service brings together ISS ESG’s extensive and unique climate data and research wedded with ISS’ expertise in governance and voting. It helps investors to more easily reflect and vote their views on a company’s climate-change risks, disclosures, and performance.
• New to ISS’ proprietary client platform, DataDesk, is the Portfolio Climate Impact Report, our most holistic report to date which is underpinned by new, high-quality scenario analysis data. In addition, new Potential Avoided Emission data was launched, enabling investors to measure the greenhouse gas emissions that are potentially saved by a company’s product or service and which also allows them to assess the climate impact of their portfolio, with the click of a button.
• Through the introduction of its ESG Index Solutions, ISS ESG enables investors to identify, benchmark, and track portfolio companies with superior ESG performance and to successfully realize their own indexing strategies. The ESG Index Solutions offering consists of Turnkey Index Solutions and Custom Index Solutions. First examples include the Solactive ISS Prime Rated ESG Index Series, which focuses on alignment with the Paris Accord climate goals, and the Solactive ISS ESG Beyond Plastic Waste Index, which only includes companies that are engaged in reducing, reusing, and/or recycling of plastics.
• A decile ranking (ranging from 1/best to 10/worst) that is now shown in the ESG Corporate and Country Ratings gives investors and rated companies a relative perspective to the rating score. It is an addition to the absolute rating score that ranges from D- (worst) to A+ (best).
• The addition of ISS Governance QualityScore point-in-time data on Open:FactSet Marketplace. The data covers 7,800 global companies on topics ranging from compensation to shareholder rights, audit and risk oversight, and board structure. Additional data sets are scheduled to be added over the coming months covering the holistic portfolio of ISS ESG analytics and research.

In addition to latest product developments, ISS ESG has mapped its ESG Corporate Rating against the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board’s (SASB) industry standards to identify the degree of alignment and completion of accounting standards and performance ratings. The mapping shows meaningful alignment with the SASB view on the relevance of ESG performance information for investors and the status of ESG materiality within the rating. Furthermore, a mapping of the ESG Corporate Rating methodology against the recent EU taxonomy proposal also showed great alignment, enabling investors to prepare and align their investments towards the EU taxonomy objectives.

Marija Kramer, Managing Director at ISS ESG, sees the recent product developments as important means for enabling investors to align with market and regulatory developments: “The broad range of expertise and our track-record positions ISS ESG well to be the partner of choice for those focused on responsible investment. We are well placed to address both current and forthcoming requirements and respond to industry trends, offering solutions that help make a difference across all aspects of impact investing.”

At PRI in Person, experts will be on site to give an introduction to ISS ESG’s latest product offerings, provide an overview on the growth of the business, and are happy to discuss needs and requirements from clients, prospects, and partners in attendance.