S&P Global Unveils SAM Sustainability Yearbook 2020

One of the world's most comprehensive sustainability rankings published by S&P Global for the first time following its acquisition of the ESG Ratings Business from RobecoSAM.

News provided by

S&P Global

Jan 30, 2020, 08:15 ET

NEW YORK, Jan. 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI) announced today the release of this year's "Sustainability Yearbook", one of the world's most comprehensive publications providing in-depth analysis on corporate sustainability. This annual ranking showcases the sustainability performance of the world's largest companies in each industry as determined by their score in the annual SAM Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA).

Earlier this year, S&P Global acquired the ESG Ratings Business from RobecoSAM to further bolster its position as the premier resource for essential environmental, social and governance (ESG) insights and product solutions for its customers. The ESG Ratings Business is comprised of two units: one administering the SAM CSA for the purpose of issuing ESG Ratings and a second that provides in-depth reports to companies seeking to understand their performance relative to their peers. Following this acquisition, the Sustainability Yearbook is being published by S&P Global for the first time. Expanding in parallel with S&P Global's wider ESG efforts, this year's report analyzes and ranks more than 4,700 companies – the most in the history of the report. In another first, the SAM total level ESG score of all assessed companies, which is based on the most financially material ESG criteria in each industry, will be published on the yearbook website.

"We are proud to present this year's Sustainability Yearbook," says Evan Greenfield, S&P Global's Senior Managing Director, ESG. "The rising prominence of ESG issues and the increasing market demand for greater insights about these matters make this Sustainability Yearbook as important as ever. We are committed to enhancing ESG intelligence to the global investment community and the Yearbook offers readers a deeper understanding of the corporate sustainability themes shaping our world."

The Sustainability Yearbook has been published annually since 2004, growing exponentially over the years. This year's Yearbook features the following articles:

Impact valuation holding sustainability to account – read the article
Distant threats, present dangers, and current controversies – exploring the connection between early risk perceptions, risk management, and risk avoidance– read the article
Interview with CDP "Climate Disclosure – a first step to step change" – read the article

"This year's Sustainability Yearbook provides substantially more information and insights to stakeholders interested in the sustainability performance of companies," says Manjit Jus, Global Head of ESG Research and Data at S&P Global. "As compared to last year's Sustainability Yearbook, we almost doubled the number of assessed companies to 4,700 and for the first time also published companies' total SAM ESG scores in addition to the ranking. As we continue to bring our businesses together, we look forward to extending this to our broader S&P Global clients in the years to come."

As part of S&P Global's acquisition of the ESG Ratings business from RobecoSAM, the CSA will be conducted and issued by S&P Global going forward. The embedding of the CSA activities into S&P Global will enhance the scale of the operations, usage, and volume of the data and services into all parts of the global financial community. Corporates participating in the CSA will benefit from the breadth and depth of S&P Global's reach in capital and commodity markets as the CSA results will be available to a much wider audience.

About S&P Global
S&P Global is the world's foremost provider of credit ratings, benchmarks and analytics in the global capital and commodity markets, offering deep data and insights on critical business factors including ESG. The Company's divisions include S&P Global Ratings, S&P Global Market Intelligence, S&P Dow Jones Indices and S&P Global Platts. S&P Global has approximately 21,000 employees in 35 countries. For more information visit www.spglobal.com.

For S&P Global's ESG offerings and thought leadership visit:
https://www.spglobal.com/en/who-we-are/corporate-responsibility/esg

To view the Sustainability Yearbook 2020 visit: https://yearbook.robecosam.com
To learn more about the SAM Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA): https://www.robecosam.com/csa

S&P Global Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains "forward-looking statements," as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements, which express management's current views concerning future events, trends, contingencies or results, appear at various places in this report and use words like "anticipate," "assume," "believe," "continue," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "future," "intend," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "strategy," "target" and similar terms, and future or conditional tense verbs like "could," "may," "might," "should," "will" and "would." For example, management may use forward-looking statements when addressing topics such as: the outcome of contingencies; future actions by regulators; changes in the Company's business strategies and methods of generating revenue; the development and performance of the Company's services and products; the expected impact of acquisitions and dispositions; the Company's effective tax rates; and the Company's cost structure, dividend policy, cash flows or liquidity.

Forward-looking statements are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in forward-looking statements include, among other things:

the impact of the acquisition of the ESG Ratings and ESG Benchmarking departments of RobecoSAM, including the impact on the Company's results of operations; any failure to successfully integrate the acquired departments into the Company's operations; and any failure to attract and retain key employees;
the risk of litigation, unexpected costs, charges or expenses relating to the acquisition;
worldwide economic, political and regulatory conditions, including conditions that may result from legislative, regulatory and policy changes associated with the current U.S. administration or the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union;
the rapidly evolving regulatory environment, in Europe, the United States and elsewhere, affecting Ratings, Commodities, Market Intelligence, and Indices, including new and amended regulations and the Company's compliance therewith;
our ability to make acquisitions and dispositions and successfully integrate the businesses we acquire;
the outcome of litigation, government and regulatory proceedings, investigations and inquiries;
the health of debt and equity markets, including credit quality and spreads, the level of liquidity and future debt issuances, as well as the demand and market for credit ratings in and across the sectors and geographies where the Company operates;
concerns in the marketplace affecting the Company's credibility or otherwise affecting market perceptions of the integrity or utility of independent credit ratings;
the effect of competitive products and pricing, including the level of success of new product developments and global expansion;
consolidation in the Company's end-customer markets;
the impact of customer cost-cutting pressures, including in the financial services industry and commodities markets;
a decline in the demand for credit risk management tools by financial institutions;
the level of merger and acquisition activity in the United States and abroad;
the volatility of the energy marketplace and the health of the commodities markets;
our ability to adjust to changes in European and United Kingdom markets as the United Kingdom leaves the European Union, and the impact of the United Kingdom's departure on our credit rating activities and other European and United Kingdom offerings;
the Company's ability to maintain adequate physical, technical and administrative safeguards to protect the security of confidential information and data, and the potential for unauthorized access to our systems or a system or network disruption that results in improper disclosure of confidential information or data, regulatory penalties and remedial costs;
the Company's ability to successfully recover should it experience a disaster or other business continuity problem from a hurricane, flood, earthquake, terrorist attack, pandemic, security breach, cyber-attack, power loss, telecommunications failure or other natural or man-made event;
changes in applicable tax or accounting requirements, including the impact of recent tax reform in the U.S.;
the level of the Company's future cash flows and capital investments;
the impact on the Company's revenue and net income caused by fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; and
the Company's exposure to potential criminal sanctions or civil penalties if it fails to comply with foreign and U.S. laws and regulations that are applicable in the domestic and international jurisdictions in which it operates, including sanctions laws relating to countries such as Iran, Russia, Sudan and Syria, anti-corruption laws such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the U.K. Bribery Act of 2010, and local laws prohibiting corrupt payments to government officials, as well as import and export restrictions.The factors noted above are not exhaustive. The Company and its subsidiaries operate in a dynamic business environment in which new risks emerge frequently. Accordingly, the Company cautions readers not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the dates on which they are made. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances arising after the date on which it is made, except as required by applicable law. Further information about the Company's businesses, including information about factors that could materially affect its results of operations and financial condition, is contained in the Company's filings with the SEC, including Item 1a, Risk Factors, in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K.