Highlights and insights:
“Substantive Research, the research discovery and research spend analytics provider for the buy-side, has published the findings of its independent survey of the evolving Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) data provider marketplace. Its final report is entitled: “How to Combat Greenwashing? Find the Right Data Partner”.
Substantive Research has identified a series of trends and insights in the evolving ESG research market:
- Whilst many consumers of ESG data select well-established institutions as their supplier, Substantive Research has discovered an extremely rich and diverse ecosystem of providers outside of the ‘household names’.
- Start-ups (1-5 years in existence) already make up over a third of market supply, some 39% of Substantive Research’s list, while Mid-level (started 6-10 years ago) and Established firms (started 10+ years ago) constitute 24% and 37%, respectively.
- 53% of the providers are generalists, in the sense that they provide all three Environmental, Social and Governance data to clients while only 33% specialize in ‘E’, ‘S’, or ‘G’ only. As the ESG process within asset managers evolves, shopping for data is likely to increasingly target specialists, as buy-side firms look to create their own ‘special sauce’.
- Of these specialists, just 5% are targeted towards Social, 70% specialize in Environmental and 25% in Governance.
- 70% of the providers have developed their own ESG frameworks in combination with one or more of 20 other global sustainable reporting standards.”
Author & access:
- Author: Substantive Research
- Format: Article & comprehensive report
- Published: 2021
- Access: Link to summary findings and report