As part of the Corporate Sustainability Assessment, the basis for selecting companies for inclusion in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices, RobecoSAM continuously monitors company-specific controversies. The purpose of this Media and Stakeholder Analysis (MSA) is to check the consistency of a company’s behavior and management of crisis situations in line with its stated principles and policies. MSA-checks are included in various criteria (chapters) of the assessment, such as Corporate Governance, Tax Strategy, Environmental Policy & Management Systems and Human Rights. Through the impact on these chapter’s scores, MSA-checks affect a company’s overall sustainability score.

1. Before 2018, companies were rewarded for not having controversies - this is no longer the case

In the old methodology, companies without MSA cases were favorably impacted as they received a 100-point score on the specific MSA-question for not having a controversy, whereas this score was lowered for companies that did. Controversy-free companies were thus rewarded with about 20-30% for each chapter that included an MSA-check. 

RobecoSAM’s objective with the 2018 methodology update is to remove the MSA’s positive score contribution to companies with no controversies while ensuring that severe controversies are more punished in the final scores. This leads to a better reflection of the actual sustainability performance of companies.

2. This change impacts all companies, even those without MSA cases

As of this year, controversy-free companies no longer receive the ‘positive’ impact automatically, while the companies that do have controversies will see a higher negative impact on their chapter scores, and as a result on the overall sustainability scores. Due to this change, even if no MSA cases were found in 2017 and 2018, a company’s score will therefore decrease. 

3. Percentile rankings are still valid to compare within the sector and against previous year's performance

Since the update is applicable to all companies, percentile rankings within the company's sector remain the same in both the old and new way of scoring MSA cases. RobecoSAM will provide recalculated 2017 scores in order to be able to compare each company’s performance on a year-to-year basis.

Illustration of the impact of the methodology change

The following example illustrates the calculation of a criterion score with no MSA case, impacting the score with minus 5.

*no MSA case

Leveraging ESG benchmarking to create more positive impact

At Finch & Beak, we accelerate our clients sustainability performance and adopt ESG benchmarking as a fundemental tool to build urgency to sharpen sustainability programs. Interested to discuss a fresh approach towards ESG benchmarking? Contact Nikkie Vinke today at nikkie@finchandbeak.com or call her at +31 6 28 02 18 80.