ESG Investor’s weekly round-up of news on technology and tools in the sustainable investing sector.
Data provider Refinitiv has launched MarketPsych ESG Analytics, a new analytics tool to provide numerical ESG insights on companies and countries based on news and social media monitoring. To monitor perceptions of sustainability and ESG risk, Refinitiv and MarketPsych have partnered to create “a multi-dimensional ESG analytics offering”. Refinitiv MarketPsych ESG Analytics complements Refinitiv’s existing ESG data by offering an external “outside-in” perspective on a company or country’s sustainability by processing millions of global articles and social media posts in near real-time. “This is a fantastic and timely extension of our long-standing partnership with MarketPsych and we look forward to bringing this to market to add yet more value to our sustainable finance portfolio of services,” said Leon Saunders Calvert, Head of Research & Portfolio Management, Refinitiv.
Ratings, benchmarks and analytics provider S&P Global has released two additional levels of ESG information that inform a company’s ESG Scores, providing deeper layers of insights and expanded transparency. An additional 400 data points have been made available for each company, based on their applicability and relevance to informing a company’s overall scoring assessment. The additional data points “will help markets better understand companies’ environmental and social impact as well as its governance standards”, the firm said. S&P Global offers almost 10,000 ESG Scores, allowing investors to bring ESG information together with over 200 other datasets, including point-in-time financials, Trucost Environmental Data, and Panjiva Supply Chain Intelligence.
Synechron, a digital transformation consulting firm, is partnering with data analytics provider RavenPack to provide augmented capabilities to the former’s InvestTech Accelerator solutions, including ESG Booster, aimed at asset and wealth management firms. Originally launched to evaluate and normalise ESG performance through portfolio-level analysis against custom metrics, the expanded ESG Booster offering will provide ESG-focused discretionary investors with ‘nowcasting’ for “a clearer, more continuous, and more encompassing vantage point”. Through this new partnership, ESG Booster will now access news sentiment data, and media attention scores produced by RavenPack from over 254,000 global sources of premium news, regulatory and press wires, and thousands of online publications.
Swiss exchange group SIX has launched new ESG indices in the Swiss equity and bond markets, covering environmental, social and governance criteria. In developing the indices, SIX has drawn on data sources including the independent Swiss sustainability rating agency Inrate. The ESG Impact Rating developed by Inrate measures the positive and negative impacts of companies on the environment and society. SIX now offers two SPI ESG indices for equities based on the Swiss Performance Index (SPI). For bonds there are 20 new SBI ESG indices available, all based on the Swiss Bond Index (SBI). To be included in the indices, a company must have an ESG Impact Rating of at least a C+ and generate no more than five percent of its revenue in a critical sector. Index candidates also cannot appear in the exclusion list of the Swiss Association for Responsible Investments.
Venture capital firm Vala Capital has announced the rebranding of Yuchelka as The Sustainability Group and the recruitment of an experienced ESG leadership team. The rebrand will enable The Sustainability Group to significantly expand its operations, developing a highly-scalable platform for advising businesses, foundations, financial institutions and family offices on how to make sustainability and social purpose an integral part of their operational approach. The Sustainability Group will be headed by Mike Penrose, who has held executive roles at Unicef UK and Save the Children International, and Alex Smith, an experienced commercial director with a background in sustainability across the hospitality and sport sectors. “We have the investment we need to bring to life our vision of what constitutes sustainability and social impact for business,” said Penrose.
