ESG

ESG is the sustainability-and-governance profile for a single company inside the Equities (Data Viewer) workspace, powered by MSCI ESG. It shows the company’s overall MSCI ESG letter rating (AAA–CCC) and its 0–10 ESG score, then breaks performance down into the three pillars (Environmental, Social, Governance), ten themes and roughly 35 key issues — explaining each score as a function of how exposed the company is to a risk and how well it manages it. From there it tracks the rating and scores over time, ranks the company against global and home-market peers, drills into board, committee, ownership and pay detail, surfaces governance red flags and deductions, details climate and environmental themes, and gives you a searchable library of the company’s published ESG/sustainability reports you can read on screen. Find it under Equities → ESG for any company that MSCI ESG covers. Users also call it “ESG ratings,” the “Sustainability tab,” the “MSCI ESG profile,” or “ESG risk.”

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What it is

ESG is where you judge a company’s non-financial risk and quality — sustainability and governance — rather than what it earns or what it is worth. It loads the latest MSCI ESG snapshot for the company you have open and organizes everything into nine inner tabs you move between from the top of the page:

• Summary — the headline rating, the 0–10 ESG score, the three pillar scores, and the most material key issues at a glance.
• Scoring Profile — how the score is built from pillar weights, themes and key-issue exposure vs. management.
• Score Evolution — the rating and scores over time as line and bar charts plus a history table.
• Factors Detail — a searchable master table of every underlying MSCI metric for the snapshot.
• Peer Analysis — global and home-market percentiles, a governance quartile, and comparison against a neutral benchmark and the rating scale.
• Governance — board, committees, ownership and control, pay, and per-category governance percentiles.
• Controversies — governance risk flags, behavior/ethics scores and the point deductions applied.
• Climate — the four environmental themes and their key-issue exposure and management scores.
• ESG Documents — the company’s own sustainability reports, searchable and readable on screen.

A shared “As of” date selector lets you view any available monthly snapshot, and an Add to AI Chat action hands the current snapshot to the AI assistant on any tab.

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When to use it

Reach for ESG whenever the question is about sustainability or governance risk and quality:

• Screen a holding for ESG-mandate compliance — does its rating and pillar profile clear your screen?
• Understand why a company carries a given MSCI rating — which key issues, exposures and management gaps actually drive it.
• Compare a company’s ESG standing to peers — globally and against its home market.
• Check governance red flags — board independence, state ownership, golden shares, stock-pyramid control, external management, clawbacks.
• See whether ESG performance is improving or deteriorating over time.
• Pull a company’s own sustainability disclosures to read, or to feed to the AI assistant.

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When to use something else instead

ESG covers sustainability and governance quality only. It does not contain valuation, earnings estimates, or trading data, and its climate data is MSCI key-issue exposure and management scores — not absolute emissions tonnage, carbon intensity, or implied-temperature-rise figures.

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How to use it

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What you get

Nine inner tabs, each answering a different ESG question for the selected snapshot.

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Summary

An executive ESG overview. The header shows the issuer name and ticker, the assigned MSCI ESG Rating Industry (peer group), country of domicile, the current MSCI ESG Rating (large and color-coded AAA–CCC), and the prior rating when it changed. A set of cards gives the ESG Score (Weighted-Average Key Issue Score, /10), the Industry-Adjusted score (/10) and the Environmental, Social and Governance pillar scores (each /10 with its percentage weight) on color-coded bars. A Key Issue Scores table lists every assessed key issue sorted by weight — Key Issue, Pillar, Weight, Score, Exposure, Mgmt and Contribution (score × weight) — and notes how many issues are material (weight above zero) of the total assessed; non-material issues are dimmed. A Theme Scores table lists the weighted themes with pillar, score and weight.

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Scoring Profile

How the score is built. Overview cards restate the ESG score, rating and each pillar (score + weight). A Weight Distribution bar visualizes the pillar weights and the weighted pillar sum. Three per-pillar cards list the weighted themes with score bars and separate out the themes that are not material to the industry (zero weight). An All Theme Scores table adds each theme’s contribution (score × weight). A Key Issue Exposure & Management Breakdown table shows, per key issue, the Score, Exposure, Management and Weight, plus a visual comparison of exposure (risk level) against management (risk mitigation) and the gap between them — a positive gap is good, a negative gap needs attention. This tab makes the core MSCI logic explicit: the score is a function of exposure and management.

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Score Evolution

The historical trend. A line chart plots the ESG Score over time (0–10) with a Show/Hide pillars toggle that overlays the Environmental, Social and Governance lines; a stats line shows the average, the min–max range and the number of periods, and a methodology note explains that the ESG Score is the Weighted-Average Key Issue Score while the pillar scores are independent and do not sum to it. Period-over-period change cards show the current value and the delta for the ESG Score and each pillar, a grouped bar chart shows the pillar scores over time, and a Historical Records table lists up to the 12 most recent snapshots with Date, Rating, ESG Score and the three pillar scores.

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Factors Detail

The exhaustive, analyst-grade view. A filterable, searchable table of every MSCI field for the snapshot, classified by Pillar, Theme, Metric, Type and Value. Filter by pillar (All / Environmental / Social / Governance / Other), by theme (a dynamic list), and by type (Score / Weight / Exposure / Management / Percentile / Deduction / Detail), or free-text search across metric, theme and type. A stats line shows how many factors are displayed of the total and the average score; score values are color-coded and percentiles are normalized for display.

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Peer Analysis

Where the company ranks. An MSCI ESG Rating Scale (AAA–CCC) labels the tiers — Leader (AAA / AA / A), Average (BBB / BB) and Laggard (B / CCC) — and highlights the current rating. Percentile cards show the Global Percentile (vs. all companies), the Home Market Percentile (vs. local peers), the Governance Quartile (Q1 best to Q4 worst) and the ESG score. A Score Breakdown vs Benchmark compares the primary ESG score, the Weighted Key Issue score and the Industry-Adjusted score against a neutral 5.0 benchmark with deltas; a Pillar Score Comparison table does the same per pillar with a marker bar; and a Performance Summary table restates the vs-global and vs-home-market percentiles, the governance quartile and the ESG score. The headline global/home percentiles shown here are MSCI’s governance percentile ranks.

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Governance

A deep dive into governance structure. Summary cards show the Governance score, global and home-market percentiles and the quartile. Board Composition covers board meetings held, average director tenure, average independent-director tenure, re-election frequency, board independence %, inside directors %, and directors over 70 %. A Committees table (Audit, Nomination, Pay) shows meetings held, whether the committee exists, and its independence %. Ownership & Control flags State-Owned Enterprise, controlled via stock pyramid, corporate parent, golden share, externally managed, plus country of incorporation and legal form. Compensation shows maximum and median director fees, non-audit fees, and clawback type. A Comprehensive Percentile Rankings table covers Overall Governance, Board, Pay, Ownership & Control, Accounting, Business Ethics, Tax Transparency and Corporate Behavior — each with global and home-market percentiles and a performance label (Excellent / Good / Fair / Needs Improvement). A Governance Pillar Deductions table lists point deductions across those categories with a total.

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Controversies

A derived governance-risk view. Risk overview cards show the Risk Score (after deductions, 0–10), Total Deductions, the count of Active Flags and an overall Status (Clear / Issues Detected). A Governance Pillar Deductions table shows the per-category deduction and a Clear/Deducted status with a total. A Risk Flags Assessment table evaluates structural red flags — State-Owned Enterprise, controlled via stock pyramid, golden share and externally managed — each with a description, category and severity (High / Medium / Low / Clear). A Business Ethics & Fraud Assessment table shows Score / Management / Exposure for Business Ethics & Fraud, Anticompetitive Practices, Corruption & Instability, Corporate Behavior and Tax Gap. A percentile-rankings table covers Business Ethics, Tax Transparency, Corporate Behavior and Accounting (global + home), and an Impact on ESG Score table reconciles the base governance score, the deductions applied and the adjusted risk score. This tab is built from MSCI governance deductions and behavior/ethics scores — it is not a feed of individual dated controversy news cases.

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Climate

Environmental-pillar detail across the four environmental themes. Summary cards show the Environmental score, the pillar weight, and the Climate Change and Environmental Opportunities theme scores. An Environmental Themes Overview table covers Climate Change, Natural Capital, Pollution & Waste and Environmental Opportunities with score, weight and a bar. An Environmental Factors Detail table, grouped by theme, lists each key issue with Score, Exposure and Management — Climate Change (Carbon Emissions, Energy Efficiency, Product Carbon Footprint, Climate Change Vulnerability), Natural Capital (Water Stress, Biodiversity & Land Use, Raw Material Sourcing), Pollution & Waste (Toxic Emissions & Waste, Packaging Material & Waste, Electronic Waste) and Environmental Opportunities (Clean Tech, Green Building, Renewable Energy, Financing Environmental Impact). An Exposure vs Management Analysis table ranks factors by exposure and labels each Low Risk / Well Managed / Adequate / At Risk / Critical based on the management-minus-exposure gap. Climate data here is expressed as MSCI 0–10 exposure and management scores — not absolute emissions or temperature alignment.

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ESG Documents

The company’s own disclosures. Its ESG/sustainability reports appear as cover cards (company logo, report name, an “ESG Report” label and year), searchable by filename or year and sorted most-recent-year first. Selecting a report opens it in an on-screen reader alongside the document list, which you can collapse to give the report more room. From the reader you can Ask AI about this document (sends it to the AI assistant) or open it on its own, and the view adjusts automatically when the AI chat is open.

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Key capabilities at a glance

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Data & sources

• MSCI ESG powers everything on the data tabs — the AAA–CCC ratings, the pillar/theme/key-issue scores, the exposure and management scores, the weights, the percentile ranks, the governance structural data, the deductions, and the MSCI ESG Rating Industry classification.
• The company’s own ESG / sustainability reports are the documents shown and read in ESG Documents — the company’s published disclosures, presented with the company’s logo on each report cover.
• Data is keyed by ticker and country.

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Tips & best practices

• Read the Summary’s materiality first. The header notes how many key issues are material (weight > 0) — those are what move the rating. Non-material issues are dimmed for a reason; do not over-weight them.
• Use the exposure-vs-management gap to find real risk. In Scoring Profile and Climate, a negative gap (exposure higher than management) is where the company is exposed but not managing well — the issues worth flagging in a memo.
• Confirm a rating change in Score Evolution. When the Summary shows a prior rating, open Score Evolution to see whether it is a one-off or part of a multi-year trend.
• Remember the ESG Score and pillar scores are different metrics. The ESG Score is the Weighted-Average Key Issue Score; the pillar scores are independent and do not add up to it.
• Treat the headline peer percentiles as governance ranks. The global/home percentiles on Peer Analysis are MSCI’s governance percentile ranks — the fuller per-pillar percentiles live on the Governance tab.
• Dig into Factors Detail for the exact number. When you need a specific MSCI metric, filter by type (Score / Exposure / Management / Percentile / Deduction) instead of scrolling the curated tabs.
• Push the snapshot to the assistant for the narrative. Add the snapshot to AI Chat and ask it to explain the rating, draft the ESG paragraph of a memo, or compare exposure and management across pillars.

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Limits & things to know

• Coverage is limited to issuers MSCI rates. A company MSCI does not cover shows no ESG data on this tab.
• Snapshots are monthly, dated to the first of the month.
• Peer Analysis headline percentiles are governance-based. The global/home percentiles and the quartile there are MSCI’s governance percentile ranks; broader per-pillar percentiles are fully exposed only in the Governance tab.
• Controversies is a derived risk view, built from governance deductions, business-ethics/fraud/ corruption/tax scores and structural ownership and control flags — not a feed of individual dated controversy news events or a standalone MSCI controversy case score.
• Climate metrics are 0–10 exposure and management scores. There are no absolute emissions tonnage, carbon-intensity or implied-temperature-rise figures on this surface.
• Near-zero anomalous scores are treated as missing and shown as a dash rather than as misleading values; non-material (zero-weight) items also show a dash.
• Treat exact fee amounts as approximate. Director and audit fees are auto-scaled when MSCI reports them in thousands.
• The “As of” selector and Add to AI Chat need a loaded record and are disabled when no data is available; ESG Documents depends on the company having published reports on file.
• The ESG tables are built for on-screen analysis, and there is no watchlist add, bookmark or note-taking here — but a document can be opened on its own and the whole snapshot can be sent to the AI assistant.

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Availability

No special entitlement is required beyond having the company open in the Data Viewer. What you see depends on MSCI ESG coverage for that issuer — if MSCI has no record for the ticker, the tab states that no ESG data is available — and ESG Documents depends on the company having published reports on file.

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Works with other features

ESG sits inside the Equities (Data Viewer) workspace, a per-company research surface that feeds the rest of the platform.

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Example workflow

Goal: vet a holding’s ESG standing for a mandate, document the risks, then scale the check across the sector.

1. Open the company in the Data Viewer and select ESG. Read the Summary for the MSCI rating, the 0–10 ESG score, the pillar scores and the material key issues.
2. Open Scoring Profile and find the key issues with a negative exposure-vs-management gap — the real risk areas — then confirm in Score Evolution whether the rating is trending up or down.
3. Go to Governance and Controversies to check red flags — board independence, state ownership, golden shares, clawbacks — and note any point deductions.
4. Open Climate to review the environmental themes, and Peer Analysis to see where the company ranks globally and against its home market.
5. Press Add to AI Chat and ask the assistant to summarize the rating, the governance red flags and the biggest exposure-vs-management gaps for your investment memo.
6. In ESG Documents, open the company’s latest sustainability report in the reader, use Ask AI about this document to pull specific disclosures, and collect it into a Data Room for the file.
7. To scale it, run a Grid that asks the same ESG questions across the company’s peer group, and generate a stock research report with Reports grounded in the ESG read.

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FAQ

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Getting help

For help using ESG or designing a sustainability or governance workflow around it, reach AllMind support through the in-app support option or by scheduling a support call with your account team.