Exploring a Shared Benchmark for Measuring ESG Performance

Abstract

The evolution of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) criteria is an ever-growing process. The relevant organizations and bodies have started to develop ad hoc initiatives and guidelines for the assessment and measurement of ESG criteria using different lines of assessment. As a result, investors have begun to use these indices as tools to direct their investments towards companies that stand out for the careful and enlightened use of environmental, social and governance variables. Subsequently, the ESG criteria were further refined and standardized, with the goal, not always achieved, of producing consistent and reliable measurements. The diversity of the nature of the companies, the sometimes difficult and inadequate reporting of certain information, combined with the lack of standardization of the results obtained, have made it impossible to produce an index that can be applied transversally to all or most of the companies. The objective of this work is therefore to propose a benchmark as useful as possible to standardize the results, in order to have a potential reference index for comparing the results of companies also operating in different sectors and with different characteristics.