Frequently Asked Questions

Corporate
Sustainability
Assessment (CSA)
2024

How to use Check the hyperlinked Table of Contents to easily navigate to the
section(s) you are interested in.
this document
Search the file for key words related to your question(s).

Last Updated This is a living document, please always refer to the latest version linked
March 2024 in the right-hand panel of the CSA portal and here.

For any additional queries, please contact our dedicated CSA Corporate
Engagement team at [email protected] or by chat on the CSA Portal.
Table of Contents
1 .... Introduction to the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) ....................... 4
1.1 Why should my company participate in the assessment and complete the questionnaire? .............. 4
1.2 What does it cost to participate in the CSA? ........................................................................................... 5
1.3 What is the ESG score and how does it differ from the CSA score? ...................................................... 5
1.4 How are the CSA results and ESG Scores shared by S&P Global? ........................................................ 5
1.5 Which ESG Indices use the CSA results to select index members? ....................................................... 6
1.6 When will I be able to see the results for my company? ......................................................................... 6
1.7 What is the range of S&P Global CSA Scores? ......................................................................................... 6
1.8 ........................... 6
1.9 ................................................................... 6
2 .... How to start: registration and password .............................................................................. 6
2.1 How do I start working on the CSA? .......................................................................................................... 6
2.2 When do I receive the password to access the Portal? ........................................................................... 6
2.3 What are the differences between administrator account access and user account access? ......... 6
2.4 What happens if I forget my password? ................................................................................................... 9
2.5 Can I change the passwords? ................................................................................................................... 9
2.6 What should I do if I cannot access the CSA Portal? ............................................................................... 9
2.7 If I am unsure about my password, how many attempts can I make before my account is locked? .. 9
2.8 We have had an internal change of responsibilities regarding the CSA, how can we change our
contact details? ...................................................................................................................................................... 9
2.9 What is the CSA timeline? ......................................................................................................................... 9
2.10 When is the completed questionnaire due? ............................................................................................ 9
3 .... How to proceed: The Questionnaire ................................................................................... 10
3.1 Where do I find the CSA Questionnaire and how can I view and fill in the questionnaire for this
year's assessment? ..............................................................................................................................................10
3.2 .............................................................................10
3.3 How can I navigate through the questionnaire? ....................................................................................10
3.4 How can I see the whole question? ........................................................................................................10
3.5 How can I see a whole section of the questionnaire? ...........................................................................10
3.6 The text is too small; can I increase the font size? ................................................................................10
3.7 Can several people work on the questionnaire at the same time? ......................................................11
3.8 What are the main changes in the questionnaire compared to last year? .........................................11
3.9 How do I access the assessed version of our previous year submission? ..........................................11
3.10 .........................11
3.11 I cannot enter any information or tick the option that I want. What should I do? ..............................11
3.12 Do I have to answer all questions? .........................................................................................................12
3.13 How precise should my answers be? .....................................................................................................12
3.14 Where can I add additional comments to the questionnaire? .............................................................12
3.15 Is there a character limit for the comment boxes? ...............................................................................12
3.16 How can I add a URL in the comment box? ............................................................................................12
3.17 What if I am unable to report a figure covering the entire scope/operations of my company?.........13
 3.18 Can I provide my data in different units of analysis than requested in the questionnaire? ..............13
3.19 How can I save the answers entered into the questionnaire? .............................................................13
3.20 ..................13
3.21 ...............13
3.22 .............................................................................13
3.23 Can I download the online questionnaire? .............................................................................................13
3.24 Can I fill in and return the questionnaire on paper? .............................................................................14
3.25 How do I submit the questionnaire to S&P Global ESG Research? .....................................................14
3.26 How can I access past benchmarking scorecards? ..............................................................................14
3.27 Can I see the answers I provided in last year's assessment? ..............................................................14
4 .... Documents ........................................................................................................................ 15
4.1 Why do you ask for company documents in the questionnaire? ..........................................................15
4.2 Will the attached references be reviewed? ............................................................................................15
4.3 How many references can I attach? .......................................................................................................15
4.4 How can I be sure that the documents I am attaching are treated as confidential? .........................15
4.5 I cannot upload documents, what is the problem? ...............................................................................16
4.6
supporting evidence? ...........................................................................................................................................16
4.7 What is the HTML taxonomy and how does this impact my company?...............................................16
5 .... Technical Support.............................................................................................................. 17
5.1 What Internet Browser should I use? .....................................................................................................17
5.2 What happens if the question I was working on gets locked? ..............................................................17
6 .... Confidentiality and Use of Information .............................................................................. 18
6.1 What is the Use of Information and Confidentiality Policy? .................................................................18
6.2 Why do I have to confirm the Use of Information and Confidentiality Policy before I can answer the
questionnaire? ......................................................................................................................................................18
6.3 What does the confidentiality designation option for data points mean? ..........................................18
6.4
..................................................................................................................................................................18
6.5 Where do I see which confidentiality designation option for data points was selected for my
company? ..............................................................................................................................................................19
6.6 Can I change my selected confidentiality designation option for data points? ..................................19
6.7 Will the choice of confidentiality designation option impact how S&P Global scores my company?
19
6.8 How will the data points be provided on the S&P Global Capital IQ Pro Platform? ............................19
7 .... Security ............................................................................................................................. 20
7.1 What is technically required to fill-in the online questionnaire? .........................................................20
7.2 How do you guarantee security of the online data transfer? ...............................................................20
7.3 Is the assessment process externally verified? ....................................................................................20
8 .... General Guidance .............................................................................................................. 21
8.1 Is there guidance available on how to best answer the CSA questions? ............................................21
8.2 Is a glossary of terms or key words available? ......................................................................................21
 8.3 I have further questions; how can I get them answered? .....................................................................21
9 .... Unit converter table ........................................................................................................... 22
Disclaimer ................................................................................................................................ 25
1 Introduction to the S&P Global Corporate
Sustainability Assessment (CSA)
1.1 Why should my company participate
in the assessment and complete the
questionnaire? The CSA as your Investor Relations toolkit
stay ahead of the curve
The S&P Global Corporate Sustainability
Assessment (CSA) enables you to benchmark your Participation in the CSA helps ESG, IR, and other
departments such as procurement or HR to
industry specific economic, environmental, and collaborate more closely in putting their
social criteria that are relevant to the growing and
number of sustainability-focused investors and explaining how challenges are addressed and
financially relevant to your corporate success. how the company intends to create value in the
long term.
The CSA is more than a simple ranking. By The breadth and depth of the assessment across
participating in the CSA process your company is the economic, environmental, and social
able to leverage S&P unique expertise dimensions gives companies a unique
and proprietary CSA methodology for your opportunity to highlight their sustainability
internal processes and external communication. strengths in areas that might not be covered by
Furthermore, the output of the CSA underpins the traditional sustainability reports. For the past 25
years, the CSA has addressed sustainability
Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI), and other issues before they have entered the agendas of
S&P ESG Indices. investors or regulators. As a result, active
participation in the CSA has helped many
The CSA has become a reference tool for companies to future-proof their business and
companies to gauge the financial materiality of stand out as ESG leaders.
their sustainability performance from an investor
perspective and to prepare themselves to S&P Global ESG Scores are available to
address upcoming sustainability trends. With 62 hundreds of thousands of stakeholders
industry-specific questionnaires, the CSA leads
As ESG considerations become more critical to
the field in helping companies make the link
capital markets, the CSA enables S&P Global to
between sustainability and their business
provide you and your stakeholders with a relevant
strategies.
and comprehensive sustainability assessment. A
key feature of the CSA is that, through your active
Chief Financial Officers use the CSA and its
participation, you can provide additional
results to communicate with the growing number
information to what is publicly available,
of sustainability-focused investors. The CSA is a
including all of your recent ESG initiatives. Scores
based on the CSA are available via the public S&P
performance and business strategy in a
Global ESG Scores website and S&P Global
convincing and credible way. Participating
Capital IQ Pro platform and other platforms like
companies proactively use the results of the CSA
the Bloomberg Terminal.
narrative.
Learning from the CSA results

Chief Sustainability Officers use the CSA as a The S&P Global Corporate Sustainability
credible, independent benchmark of their Assessment enables you to establish a baseline
for your sustainability performance and to
industry peers while providing internal and conduct competitive benchmarking. We facilitate
external stakeholders with important insights your learning with:
A Benchmarking Scorecard and Database
and value drivers. empowering you to conduct multi-year trend
4 / 25
analysis and gain detailed insight on the Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment
percentile rankings within your industry. As an (CSA).
active participant, we provide you with a
scorecard which allows you to give feedback to The S&P Global ESG Score is a relative score
your subject-matter experts for each question in measuring a company's performance on, and
the CSA. This level of transparency will give you management of, ESG risks, opportunities, and
very detailed insight into your performance. impacts that can be compared to their peers
within the same industry classification.
Gain public recognition in the S&P Global The S&P Global ESG Score uses a double
Sustainability Yearbook materiality approach whereby a sustainability
Each year, we publish the S&P Global issue is considered to be material if it presents a
Sustainability Yearbook based on information significant impact on society or the environment
collected through the CSA. The top performing and a significant impact on a company's value
companies receive a distinction as Top 1%, Top drivers, competitive position, and long-term
5%, Top 10%, Industry Mover, or Yearbook shareholder value creation.
Member within their respective industry. For The S&P Global Corporate Sustainability
more information, visit: Assessment (CSA) Score is the S&P Global ESG
www.spglobal.com/yearbook Score without the inclusion of any modeling
approaches.
Additional details on the benefits of participation
are available here. The S&P Global Media and Stakeholder Analysis
(MSA) forms an integral part of the S&P Global
1.2 What does it cost to participate in Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) and
enables S&P Global to monitor companies'
the CSA? sustainability performance on an ongoing basis
Participation is free of charge for all companies by assessing current controversies with
that have been invited to take part in the potentially negative reputational or financial
assessment. All that is required is for your impacts.
company to register online (if it has not already
done so), confirm participation window, and then 1.4 How are the CSA results and ESG
submit the completed questionnaire and any Scores shared by S&P Global?
additional supporting information to S&P Global
ESG Research by the given deadline. Sharing of CSA results is subject to the Use of
Information and Confidentiality Policy.
Private equity companies, private debt, as well as
listed entities which are currently not covered by As part of S&P ongoing activities to
our S&P Global ESG Scores universe, can increase the transparency and reach of CSA
commission a Confidential CSA score on results, the S&P Global ESG Scores and
themselves, their portfolio companies, or (if applicable) underlying datapoints, are available
suppliers. We apply the same rigorous to global capital markets via S&P Capital
assessment approach as we do for our invited IQ Pro platform.
universe, but the resulting scores and reports are
kept confidential by the company for their Within two years of its launch on the S&P Global
internal needs. Contact our Sustainability Capital IQ Pro platform in 2021, this new ESG
Benchmarking Services team to learn more. Scores module has attracted S&P clients from
across 49 countries, responsible for over US
$38.4 trillion in assets under management, and
1.3 What is the ESG score and how does spanning across several industries including
Asset Management, Research and Consulting
it differ from the CSA score? Services, Fintech, Education Services, Central
The S&P Global ESG Score measures a company's banks, and more.
performance on, and management of, material
ESG risks, opportunities, and impacts informed The S&P Global ESG Scores are also available on
by a combination of company disclosures, media the public scores website. This page features
and stakeholder analysis, modeling approaches, scores of companies invited for the Dow Jones
and in-depth company engagement via the S&P Sustainability Index (DJSI) and/or the S&P Global
5 / 25
LargeMidCap index as of March of each year. In
addition, if not already in the above groups, the 1.9 How can I request a review of my
public website will feature the scores of all
participating companies.
If you have any doubt about your CSA Score, you
may directly contact the Corporate Engagement
1.5 Which ESG Indices use the CSA Team with your inquiry. To help S&P Global
respond to your inquiry as quickly as possible, we
results to select index members?
ask that you limit your inquiry to a maximum of
The ESG Scores calculated in part from the three questions. The three-question limit ensures
results of the CSA are used as inputs for several that we provide prompt, quality feedback to all
sustainability indices, such as the S&P ESG Index companies that contact us. (Please note that a
Family. The DJSI utilizes CSA scores as inputs. question falls under one of approximately 25
Learn more about the different indices. Find out criteria, and is preceded by a number, e.g., 1.1.1
more about how the CSA results are used. Sustainability Reporting Boundaries).

1.6 When will I be able to see the results If you are not satisfied with the explanation
for my company? provided by the Corporate Engagement Team and
you believe that a specific question needs to be
You can see the target score release date for your re-assessed, please request a review form from
company under the Assessments tab in the the Corporate Engagement Team. The main
Manage Participation section of the CSA Portal. contact/administrator for your company
First, they are released to companies in the CSA registered on the CSA portal must complete the
, and then within review form and submit it back to us. Your inquiry
a couple of weeks also to the S&P Global Capital will then be processed, and you shall receive a
IQ Pro Platform and the S&P Global public reply in ten to fifteen business days.
website.
Our benchmarking services are available for any
1.7 What is the range of S&P Global CSA companies interested in detailed feedback on
Scores? more than three questions.

Scores range from 0-100 (best). A score of 0

signifies that S&P Global ESG Research
minimum requirements on disclosure of key
Environmental, Social, and Governance themes
have not been met.

1.8
industry ranking change after it is
first published?
ESG Score
from time to time, in accordance with its
methodologies, policies, and procedures. This
includes reviews as a result of a corporate
controversy (see Media and Stakeholder
Analysis), reviews triggered through internal
processes, or reviews by company request. As a
result, the rankings or leadership designation of
companies in the related industry may also
change. Industry rankings are also subject to
change as the number of assessed companies
increases throughout the year.

6 / 25
2 How to Start: Registration and Password
2.1 How do I start working on the CSA? must select a participation window and confirm
your participation by agreeing to the Use of
A registered company account is a prerequisite Information and Confidentiality Policy.
to completing the CSA. Registration to the CSA Lastly, the questionnaire will only become
Portal is free of charge. available for editing on the start date of your
chosen participation window.
My company has not yet registered an account:
To register a company for the CSA Portal, please
2.2 When do I receive the password to
click here.
access the Portal?
and select the If your company is participating for the first time
relevant option from the drop-down menu. and you haven't yet registered an account on the
Please contact the CSA Corporate Engagement CSA Online Portal, you will not receive a password
Team if your company name does not appear in to access the online questionnaire. You must first
the menu on the CSA Portal. You should also register to use the Portal. Individual users can
contact Corporate Engagement if, when selecting then be added to the account and each user will
your company name in the dropdown, there is a have its own password to log in with. Please
pop-up message indicating that your company follow the instructions in this tutorial to register
already has a registered account. your company.

After registering, you will receive an email 2.3 What are the differences between
confirming successful registration within one
business day, after which you will be able to log
administrator account access and
into the Portal user account access?
participation. Please follow the instructions in the An administrator (admin) designation gives you
email. If you do not receive a confirmation email the right to:
within the next business day, please contact the • Manage admin, user, contact, and company
CSA Corporate Engagement Team. details;

My company already has a registered account: • Manage user access to individual sections of
If this is your first time participating in the questionnaire and some tabs of the online
the Corporate Sustainability Assessment, but interface (e.g., MSA tab);
your company already has a registered account in • Define document access (i.e., designate
the CSA Portal, those that have been added by the uploaded confidential documents
account administrator(s) to the company account so they can then only be accessed by an
can log in using their email address and administrator);
password. Administrators can confirm your
participation directly in the Portal. • Pre-fill the entire current questionnaire from a
previous questionnaire:
If you no longer have your password, you may (1) if your company completed the S&P Global
select the option Forgot your password? on the CSA Questionnaire last year, an administrator
Portal log in page and enter your email address. account will be able to retrieve the information
You shall then receive an email to reset your that was submitted by your company and
password. assessed by S&P Global, by clicking the
relevant pre-fill icon.
My company participated in the 2023 CSA: (2) If your company didn't complete the S&P
You administrator(s) has received an Global CSA Questionnaire last year, but was
email with directions for the CSA Portal. assessed based on publicly available data, an
administrator account will be able to retrieve
The 2024 questionnaire will not be released until the information that was collected by the S&P
the official start of the assessment period (April Global ESG Research team by clicking the
3rd). The questionnaire may be downloaded as a relevant pre-fill icon. For more information on
PDF. To begin filling out the questionnaire, you pre-fill functions, see the Portal Guide;
6 / 25
• Mark a question as Approved once it has You can make three attempts, after which your
been marked Completed ; account will be locked for 5 minutes for security
reasons. If you have forgotten your password,
• Unmark a question as Approved and make it
please refer to the instructions under Question
available for editing again;
2.4.
• Submit the questionnaire: this will lock the
questionnaire from further editing and the 2.8 We have had an internal change of
whole questionnaire will be sent to S&P Global responsibilities regarding the CSA,
ESG Research for review;
how can we change our contact
• Manage the company's subscriptions and details?
services;
If you still have your company's administrator
• Access the Reports section of the account details at hand, you can change your own
Benchmarking tab. contact details in the Account tab when logged
in on the CSA Portal. If you no longer have any
A user account, on the other hand, does not administrator access to the Portal, contact the
include the administrator privileges. However, a CSA Corporate Engagement Team.
user can add information and answer all
questions that were not restricted to them by an 2.9 What is the CSA timeline?
admin. The only limitation here is that only one
person can edit a question at a time, and that the The detailed timelines for all companies are
other users will be blocked from editing that available here:
question if it is already being accessed by another https://www.spglobal.com/esg/csa/csa-
person. timeline

If you don't know who has administrator rights for

your company, please contact the CSA Corporate 2.10 When is the completed
Engagement Team. questionnaire due?
See also Question 2.9.
2.4 What happens if I forget my
password? The CSA Portal will automatically close the
questionnaire and prevent further editing, after
You will be able to request a new password for
11:59 pm Central European Time (CET) on the day
administrator and user accounts by clicking on
of your selected Submission Deadline. After this
Forgot your password? on the CSA Portal
deadline, companies will no longer be able to
homepage.
enter additional information, change their
answers, or submit the questionnaire, but will still
2.5 Can I change the passwords? be able to log in and look at the edited
The administrators and users have the right to questionnaire.
change their own passwords by clicking Change
Password located under Options in the grey Deadline extensions are granted based on
right-hand navigation panel when logged into the availability. A deadline extension needs to be
CSA Portal. selected in the CSA Portal (Manage Participation
section) and can only be selected from the
2.6 What should I do if I cannot access available options. An administrator can only
select an option from the available deadline
the CSA Portal? extensions once your participation
First try resetting your password. If you still are window has opened and the questionnaire has
unable to access the Portal, contact the CSA been started button
Corporate Engagement Team. has been selected in the Questionnaires section
of the Assessments tab).
2.7 If I am unsure about my password,
how many attempts can I make
before my account is locked?

9 / 25
3 How to Proceed: The Questionnaire

3.1 Where do I find the CSA within the question layout, by clicking Prev or
Questionnaire and how can I view Next at the top of each question.
and fill in the questionnaire for this
3.4 How can I see the whole question?
year's assessment?
You can minimize the questionnaire tree on the
If your company is registered on the CSA Portal left- and right-hand navigation panels by clicking
and you have administrator or user access, you on the arrows shown below.
can log in to access the questionnaire. Companies
that participated in the CSA in previous years can
access their answers to last year's questionnaire.
First-time participants can access last year's
blank questionnaire.

The questionnaire can be accessed and reviewed

in the CSA Portal or downloaded as a PDF.

To provide answers for your company, you need to

begin the questionnaire process by clicking on the
Start questionnai button on the right side of
the Questionnaire section.

In order to start the questionnaire, the company

needs to first haven chosen a participation
window and selected and saved a datapoint
designation option in the Manage Participation If a question cannot be fully displayed on your
section of the Assessments tab. The screen (e.g., due to your screen resolution), you
participation window needs to have started in can either use the Zoom In/Out function in your
browser or generate a PDF by clicking on the
relevant icon. For more information on how to
3.2 What is the Assessments tab for in download a PDF version, see Question 3.23.
the top menu? Please note that this might slightly change the
layout of the question.
This is the default view when you log in. The
Assessments tab allows you to manage your 3.5 How can I see a whole section of the
the CSA
questionnaire, save documents, and pre-populate
questionnaire?
the CSA questionnaire with sustainability In the online interface, you can only access one
information using taxonomy architecture (where question at a time. If you wish to see more than
applicable). one question, you can generate a PDF by clicking
on the PDF icon. Please note that this might
3.3 How can I navigate through the slightly change the layout of the question. For
questionnaire? more information on how to download a PDF
version, see3.
The questionnaire appears in a tree structure in
the Questionnaire section. To view the questions, 3.6 The text is too small; can I increase
you need to expand the questionnaire by clicking
on the small arrow next to the dimension name
the font size?
and then the criteria name. If you wish to collapse If you are having trouble reading the question
a certain section of the questionnaire, please text, you can increase the font size by using the
click on the arrow again. Zoom In/Out function available in your browser.
You can also switch between questions from
10 / 25
3.7 Can several people work on the
questionnaire at the same time?
Yes, several people can work in the Portal on your
company's submission at the same time.

However, only one person can save work on a You can also pre-fill at a later stage. There are
question at a time. A user will be blocked from two functions for pre-filling specific answers with
saving edits to a question if it is already being the most recent data. For both administrators and
accessed by another user. users, the pre-fill function at the question level is
the fifth icon to the left of the submission button.
3.8 What are the main changes in the Clicking this icon will pre-fill any available
questionnaire compared to last answers for that specific question.
year?
Additionally, administrators have another pre-fill
Approximately 10-20% of the questions in the function available immediately to the left of the
CSA are updated every year. This aims to raise the submission button. This function will cover the
bar on sustainability reporting or to reflect whole questionnaire and pre-fill all answers
emerging and underreported sustainability where available.
trends.
The pre-fill function can be used for those
Visit the right-hand navigation panel in the CSA questions that are the same as in the past year.
Portal for documents containing an overview of New questions and questions where the
methodology changes as well as industry specific underlying data structure has been changed will
methodology updates and updated supporting not be pre-filled.
evidence requirements.
Please note that the pre-fill function only serves
3.9 How do I access the assessed as a tool to assist you in answering the
version of our previous year questionnaire and that all answers should be
checked before submitting your answers to S&P
submission? Global. In addition, you are encouraged to
To view the analyst-assessed version of your provide additional disclosure to your public
lease follow the reporting wherever acceptable and possible.
steps in this tutorial.
3.11 I cannot enter any information or tick
3.10 Is it possible to populate answers the option that I want. What should I
from last year do?
questionnaire? To enter information, you need to activate the
Immediately after selecting question by ticking the first radio button which
in the current CSA will activate the options contained within the
questionnaire, you will be asked in a pop-up section. You will then be able to fill out the
window if you wish to pre-fill the questionnaire. appropriate answers. You may want to check that
the question has not been moved into
This pre-fill will always be based on the most For users, it is also possible
recent, assessed version of the CSA. This could be that this question has been locked for you by an
your last submission, including any changes or administrator.
additions made by the ESG Research analyst
during their review, or most recent
assessment public
information.

11 / 25
 • Performance data: When figures are
requested but your company is unable to
provide exact values, please provide estimates
to the best of your ability and explain this in
the comment box provided. If information is
unavailable for the entire organization, please
adjust the coverage figure (where applicable)
to reflect the correct scope of the information
reported.
• Supporting information: The analysis of
supporting information is an important part of
the assessment where indicated, please
provide the necessary supporting reference(s).
However, please only add information that is
3.12 Do I have to answer all questions? relevant to support the specific answer.
No, you can submit the questionnaire at any time.
However, please try to answer as many questions 3.14 Where can I add additional
as you can. Companies answering a larger
proportion of our questionnaire tend to have
comments to the questionnaire?
better total scores than companies that do not. Within the online questionnaire, additional
comments or remarks can be included in the
If your company believes that a question or available comment fields. However, providing
section is not applicable, please contact the CSA explanatory comments should be the exception
Corporate Engagement Team with a clear rather than the rule. Additional comments should
explanation of why you believe the only be used to explain changes in data,
question/section is not applicable to your calculation methodologies, and/or why a question
business model. The Corporate Engagement is not applicable.
Team will be able to advise you if the question can
be accepted as not applicable and will track it in 3.15 Is there a character limit for the
the system. Please also repeat your justification
comment boxes?
in the Confidential additional
comments box. The limit for the comment boxes is 5,000
characters. Please note that this limit also counts
3.13 How precise should my answers be? HTML formatting tags generated by applying
formatting to the text in the comment box. The
Please be brief and to the point. Make sure that text boxes inside a question all have an indication
you provide the most relevant information for the below them indicating their specific character
question asked. Please note that questions, if not limit.
specified otherwise, should be answered for the
whole company. Questions always refer to your
3.16 How can I add a URL in the comment
company as defined by internationally accepted
accounting practices (i.e., answers should include box?
the holding company, subsidiaries of which your To add a link in the comment box, highlight the
company owns a controlling interest, and any text in the comment box that you wish to add a
joint arrangement or operations that are link to. Once the text has been highlighted, you
proportionally consolidated). can select the link icon to add the relevant URL
• Policies: Corporate policies should apply to within the pop-up window.
the entire company and its subsidiaries. If
certain policies, measures, management
systems, among others, only apply to certain
business units or subsidiaries, please specify
in the comment field which business
unit/subsidiaries the policies cover (in this
case, please also provide us with revenue
figures for each business unit/subsidiary).
12 / 25
3.17 What if I am unable to report a figure 3.20 Do all questions need to be marked
covering the entire scope/operations as completed in order to set them to
of my company? approved ?
You need to provide an estimate for the whole No, an administrator can set them to approved
company, for instance using a weighted average on a per-question basis.
based on the percentage of revenues contributed
by the different entities for which you have data. 3.21 Do all questions need to be marked
You can use the comment box to explain how this as approved in order to submit the
one figure was calculated and report the multiple
figures behind the estimate.
Questionnaire?
No, an administrator can submit the
3.18 Can I provide my data in different questionnaire at any time, even if some or all
units of analysis than requested in questions are not marked as approved . The
question status is a feature to help companies
the questionnaire?
keep track of progress.
We have integrated a unit converter for some
answer options within certain questions which 3.22 Can I mark all the questions to
allows you to provide the data in the units of approved at once?
analysis used for reporting within your company.
For example, if we ask you to provide figures No, you must change the status of each question
about your purchase of electricity in megawatt individually. The approval function enables the
hours (MWh) but your company only reports company administrator to quality check the
electricity figures in gigajoule (GJ), you can answers internally. It does not impact your ability
provide the figures in this unit instead. The unit to submit the questionnaire.
converter will automatically convert your data
into MWh. 3.23 Can I download the online
questionnaire?
If you wish to provide your data in a different unit
than the default one asked for, click on the By selecting the PDF icon, you will be able to
calculator in the text box and choose your download the questionnaire in PDF format.
preferred unit in the drop-down list. Insert the
figure and click 'ok' to validate the conversion. If
you wish to learn more about the unit converter
and the formulas that we use for conversion,
please refer to the unit converter table at the end
of this document. Please note that some of the
unit conversions from the table are available in
the unit converter calculator, but not all of them. A small window will open for you to provide an
email address to which the PDF will be sent.
If your data is in different units of analysis than
requested in the questionnaire and the question You can choose to include the question rationale
does not offer a unit converter, please contact the and definitions and/or your answers and
CSA Corporate Engagement Team for advice on additional comments in the questionnaire or
how to proceed. In such a case, it might not be generate a blank version of the questionnaire. All
possible to report in a different unit. answers you have provided by the time you
request the PDF will be included in the document
3.19 How can I save the answers entered if you opt to include answers in the download.
In case you have not received the questionnaire
into the questionnaire?
via email within an hour, please contact our CSA
At the bottom of each question there is a red Corporate Engagement Team.
Save button which should be used to save the
answers while working on them. If you switch to Please note that due to technical and legal reasons, it
another question, the system automatically saves is not possible to download the questionnaire as a
your answers. Word document or Excel file.

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3.24 Can I fill in and return the the Portal by selecting the relevant year in the
questionnaire on paper? base year dropdown. For DJSI-invited companies,
your company's benchmarking scorecards (solely
No, all companies are required to fill in the web- benchmarking against other DJSI-invited
based questionnaire and submit it to S&P Global companies within your industry) for the most
electronically by using the CSA Portal. Some recent and previous years can be retrieved by
companies may wish to fill in a paper version of logging in on the CSA Portal. Please log in as an
the questionnaire first, before transferring the administrator and go to the Reports section
information to the online questionnaire and within the Benchmarking tab to download past
submitting it to S&P Global ESG Research. benchmarking scorecards. As it is a PDF file that
However, we recommend using the online portal is only published once, it will not update with any
and, if necessary, providing online access to your score changes in the same way the Benchmarking
colleagues to complete the questionnaire in the Database updates.
system. This way they will have the best access to
all supporting information and question guidance. 3.27 Can I see the answers I provided in
last year's assessment?
3.25 How do I submit the questionnaire to
S&P Global ESG Research? If you wish to view the answers your company
provided in last year's questionnaire, you can
Once all questions have been fully answered, an retrieve them within the CSA Portal. Once logged
administrator will need to log in to ubmit in, select the relevant year in the drop-down
questionnaire . menu within the Questionnaires section (just
/
questionnai button).

The CSA Portal also has a function for pre-filling

answers from last year's questionnaire (see ).
Please note that answers will be transferred only
for questions and data queries that are the same
as in the previous year's assessment. If there has
Upon submission, you will be prompted to accept been any change to the question or the underlying
S&P Global's Use of Information & Confidentiality question structure, the answer fields will either
Policy. After having submitted the online be partly pre-filled or empty, prompting you to
questionnaire, you will be able to read your submit the information again.
answers, but not to edit them.

3.26 How can I access past benchmarking

scorecards?
For all companies that have past scores, they can
be viewed in the Benchmarking Database within

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4 Documents 4.2 Will the attached references be
reviewed?
4.1 Why do you ask for company Yes, they are used by S&P Global ESG Research
documents in the questionnaire? analysts to assess the company and verify your
answers.
For most questions, we ask you to support your
responses by providing references to company
Whenever a reference is requested, it is either
documents, policies, or guidelines. These
directly or indirectly linked to the scoring of that
questions contain a paperclip icon.
question. For this reason, we ask the company to
indicate which pages in the attached documents
are relevant to the question. Ordering your
references according to their relevance to the
response will further ensure that the most
relevant ones will be looked at first.

4.3 How many references can I attach?

No more than five documents or web links can be
When selected, it will enable you to upload the attached per upload area and therefore we
relevant document or provide the link to the recommend that you only attach the most
relevant webpage. Additionally, references can be relevant references to support your answers (e.g.,
uploaded from within the Documents section where we ask for an example, one sample
found within the Assessments tab of the CSA document to illustrate something specific is
portal. sufficient). In some questions (e.g., where S&P
Global ESG Research is looking for a policy), the
maximum number of references should be less
than five. The size limit for individual documents
is 50Mb.

4.4 How can I be sure that the

Please note that in all questions containing the documents I am attaching are
paperclip icon, documents are used as part of the treated as confidential?
appraisal and scoring scheme to validate a All non-public documents you submit are treated
. as confidential as per our Use of Information and
Confidentiality Policy. S&P Global ESG Research
Note: Questions that require publicly available will only use them to verify your answers. They are
information or where more credit may be awarded stored in S&P Global ESG Research database
for public availability are clearly marked. These and used exclusively for the Corporate
questions will feature a banner at the top Sustainability Assessment.
indicating whether public information is
required, or if additional credit may be awarded. In cases where documents are requested for
Additional details about the requirements are informational purposes, e.g., to demonstrate a
shown by directly clicking on the banner: process rather than a specific figure, the
company may submit a redacted version of the
document blocking out any sensitive information.
Or:

For questions where only publicly available

information is accepted, only a weblink will be
accepted. You will not be able to attach a
document.
15 / 25
4.5 I cannot upload documents, what is (HyperText Markup Language) Taxonomy, which is
the problem? a digital representation of the CSA, including all
62 industry-specific questionnaires. Using an API
The problem may be that you are connected over (Application Programming Interface), S&P Global
a proxy server that does not allow uploads. Please ESG Research allows companies to submit
check with your company IT department first to information in HTML format to its online portal.
find a solution. This solution will allow companies to transmit
data from an external system into the S&P Global
If the problem persists, please contact our CSA ESG Research platform, populating the
Corporate Engagement Team. questionnaire with company data. Leading
software vendors focusing on sustainability
reporting and sustainability information
4.6 Why is there a paperclip evidence management will be able to integrate the HTML
icon attached to questions that do taxonomy into their systems, enabling companies
to compile and report information in a single
not explicitly require any supporting
place.
evidence?
We have long required supporting evidence for For any questions regarding HTML, please
most of the questions in the CSA and have been contact the CSA Corporate Engagement Team.
increasing the number of questions for which not
only private, but also public references are
needed.

Growing scrutiny on the analytical process behind

ESG Scores requires enhanced auditing of the
answers provided in the CSA. As of 2022, all
questions, or, as applicable, single data points,
include the option to attach supporting evidence.

4.7 What is the HTML taxonomy and how

does this impact my company?
S&P Global ESG Research has developed a HTML

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5 Technical Support
5.1 What Internet Browser should I use?
We advise you to use a recent version of Google
Chrome when working on the questionnaire;
recent versions of Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft
Edge are also supported. S&P Global ESG
Research cannot guarantee that the assessment
tool will function optimally in Safari. If you are
using one of the browsers mentioned above and
still experience technical issues, please contact
the CSA Corporate Engagement Team.

5.2 What happens if the question I was

working on gets locked?
When the CSA Online Portal is closed without first
logging out, the question you were working on
previously may be locked from editing when you
log back in. This is to prevent any other user from
making unwanted changes to the question you
were working on in the event that you are
unexpectedly logged out. If this happens, please
wait 20 minutes before trying to work on that
question. After this period, the question will be
available for editing again. Other questions will
remain editable during that time.

To prevent this from occurring, we advise you to

always log out of the assessment platform if you
intend to be away from your computer for an
extended period. If you are unable to edit the
question after the 20-minute wait, please contact
the CSA Corporate Engagement Team.

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6 Confidentiality and Use of Information
6.1 What is the Use of Information and results, the ESG scores and (if authorized by the
Confidentiality Policy? company) underlying data points are available to
global capital markets via the S&P Global Capital
The Use of Information & Confidentiality Policy IQ Pro platform (CIQ Pro).
( Policy ) applies to information provided by
companies participating in the Corporate Companies participating in the CSA have three
Sustainability Assessment (CSA) via the online confidentiality designation options for data point
CSA Portal ( Portal ). This includes: level responses. The options are:
• Data and information concerning the
company ( data points ), S&P Global
• Supporting documents containing (1) is permitted to use all Data Points* we
company information, provide in accordance with the Use of
• Additional comments and insights in Information & Confidentiality Policy
response to certain CSA questions. (2) is permitted to use all Data Points* we
provide with the exception of those
Please refer to the full Policy for details. provided for or in response to the List of
Confidential Data Points ** but otherwise
6.2 Why do I have to confirm the Use of in accordance with the Use of Information
Information and Confidentiality & Confidentiality Policy
(3) is not permitted to use the Data Points*.
Policy before I can answer the Please note, in all instances, S&P Global
questionnaire? may use the Data Points or any other
You can scroll through and review the CSA information available in the public
questionnaire to understand what will be required domain.
to complete it.
*as defined in the Use of Information & Confidentiality Policy
** List of Confidential Data Points applicable only if the
However, in order to enter any information as related confidentiality designation option was selected.
responses to the questionnaire, you will need to
accept the Use of Information & Confidentiality Selecting options (1) or (2) will allow CSA
Policy ( Policy ) which includes the confidentiality participants to leverage the S&P Global Capital IQ
designation option for certain data points. The Pro Platform to provide additional granularity on
acceptance of the policy is a requirement as you ESG topics, supplementing their public
start to enter information on behalf of your disclosures to capital market participants.
company and that information will be saved on
the CSA Portal. S&P Global will only use the Selecting option (3) will limit S&P G
provided information, as defined in the Policy, the data points in the same way as in previous
upon final submission of the CSA questionnaire. years when no choice was provided to companies.

6.3 What does the confidentiality 6.4

designation option for data points selecting certain data points for the
mean? List of Confidential Data Points ?
Data point level information becomes more When selecting the appropriate option,
important for capital market participants for: companies agree to allow S&P Global the use of
• Integration of ESG information at the data all data points with the exception of those
point level in portfolio management models included in the List of Confidential Data Points .
and decision making.
• Regulations that require the reporting of S&P Global selected questions and underlying
data point level information on invested data points for this list based on company
companies. feedback and our analysis of company responses.

increase the transparency and reach of CSA

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6.5 Where do I see which confidentiality 6.7 Will the choice of confidentiality
designation option for data points designation option impact how S&P
was selected for my company? Global scores my company?
You can go back to the Manage Participation No. We will apply the same scoring approach to all
section under the Assessments tab to review companies, independent of the chosen
and, data Confidentiality Designation Option for Data
point designation option. Points.

Once a selection is confirmed, an email will be 6.8 How will the data points be provided
on the S&P Global Capital IQ Pro
will also be saved in your Inbox folder directly in
the CSA Portal. You can access it under the Inbox
Platform?
tab. A key feature of the S&P Global Capital IQ Pro is
that the data points are provided via this platform
6.6 Can I change my selected in the exact context of the CSA questionnaire.
confidentiality designation option Users of CIQ Pro are able to review the data in the
exact layout of the CSA questionnaire to fully
for data points?
understand the questions asked and to put the
You can change the selected designation options data in the wider context of the different sub-
at any time before you submit the CSA questions and answer options. In addition, the full
questionnaire. Please contact the CSA Corporate set of supporting guidance, including key
Engagement Team for assistance as needed. definitions and data requirements that were
available to companies when completing the
Once the questionnaire has been submitted, the questionnaire are also provided to the data users.
confidentiality designation is final and cannot be See this FAQ for further details.
changed.

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7 Security
7.1 What is technically required to fill-in
the online questionnaire?
As described under Question 0, a current internet
browser is required e.g., Chrome, Edge, or Firefox.
A screen setting of at least a 1280 x 1024-pixel
resolution is recommended to view the online
questionnaire.

7.2 How do you guarantee security of the

online data transfer?
For encryption of the data transfer, we use 128-
bit SSL technology, the strongest commercially
available level of encryption to guarantee that
only you and S&P Global ESG Research will see
the provided information. Your data will be
encrypted at all times during transit over the
Internet.

7.3 Is the assessment process externally

verified?
S&P Global Switzerland SA annually receives
external assurance on the application of its
Corporate Sustainability Assessment and its
methodology. You can view last year's external
assurance statement here.

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8 General Guidance
8.1 Is there guidance available on how to
best answer the CSA questions? 8.2 Is a glossary of terms or key words
available?
Within the questionnaire, there is a banner at the All key terms are explained and defined under the
top of each question that provides explanatory additional guidance button for each respective
and background information. Important terms question.
and concepts are also explained to facilitate your
understanding of the questions.

8.3 I have further questions; how can I

get them answered?
Please feel free to contact our dedicated CSA
Please click the Additional information and
Corporate Engagement Team at
question guidance button before answering a
[email protected] or by chat via the CSA Portal.
question to better understand the type of
answers and supporting evidence we are looking
for. If you have content related questions that are
not sufficiently explained in the question's
information button, the CSA Corporate
Engagement Team can be contacted for any
additional clarifications.

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9 Unit Converter Table
Please use this table to assist you in understanding how our platform converts different units in the
questionnaire. This applies to different questions, and you can find some examples in the questions related
to Operational Eco-Efficiency (i.e., in Emissions, Waste, Water, and Resource Efficiency and Circularity
criteria). In these questions, you can select the unit you want to use from a drop-down menu. The system
will automatically convert the value you entered to the unit we assigned to that datapoint.

Convert from Convert to Formula Unit Type

BCF BCF x*1 energy
BCF m³ x*28316846.6 volume
BOE GWh x*0.001699 energy
BOE MWh x*1.699 energy
BOE Million BOE x*0.000001 energy
BOE kWh x*1699 energy
BTU BTU x*1 energy
Barrels m³ x*0.158987 volume
Calendar Year Calendar Year x*1 Year
Fiscal Year Fiscal Year x*1 Year
GJ BTU x*947817.07775 energy
GJ GWh x*0.0002778 energy
GJ MWh x*0.2778 energy
GJ Million BTU x*0.94781712031332 energy
GJ kWh x*277.8 energy
GWh GWh x*1 energy
GWh TWh x*0.001 energy
GWh kWh x*1000000 energy
MW MW x*1 power
MWh BTU x*3412141.63281 energy
MWh GWh x*0.001 energy
MWh MWh x*1 energy
MWh Million BTU x*3.4121416331279 energy
MWh TWh x*0.000001 energy
MWh kWh x*1000 energy
MWh/ML MWh/ML x*1 pure
Million BOE Million BOE x*1 energy
Million BTU Million BTU x*1 energy
Million USD Million USD x*1 monetary
Million metric tonnes Million metric tonnes x*1 mass
Million m³ Million m³ x*1 volume
Mio cubic meters BCF x*0.0353146667 energy
Mio cubic meters m³ x*1000000 volume
Mio gallons (Imperial) BCF x*0.000160543653 energy
Mio gallons (US) BCF x*0.000133680556 energy

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Convert from Convert to Formula Unit Type
Mio liters m³ x*1000 volume
Mio tons oil eq Mio tons oil eq x*1 pure
Monetary Units Monetary Units x*1 monetary
TWh GWh x*1000 energy
TWh MWh x*1000000 energy
TWh TWh x*1 energy
TWh kWh x*1000000000 energy
USD Million USD x*0.000001 monetary
USD USD x*1 monetary
USD/BOE USD/BOE x*1 pure
W/kg W/kg x*1 pure
cubic feet BCF x*0.000000001 energy
cubic feet BTU x*1027 energy
cubic feet Million BTU x*0.001027 energy
cubic feet m³ x*0.02832 volume
cubic meters BCF x*35314.667 energy
cubic meters Million m³ x*0.000001 volume
days days x*1 duration
g/PKT g/PKT x*1 pure
g/TKT g/TKT x*1 pure
gallons (Imperial) m³ x*0.004546 volume
gallons (US) m³ x*0.003785 volume
hours hours x*1 duration
incidents per 1.000.000 incidents per 1.000.000 x*1 pure
hours worked hours worked
incidents per 200.000 hours incidents per 200.000 hours x*1 pure
worked worked
kWh BTU x*3412.1416 energy
kWh TWh x*0.000000001 energy
kWh kWh x*1 energy
kg kg x*1 mass
kg metric tonnes x*0.001 mass
kg PFC / met. ton Al prod. kg PFC / met. ton Al prod. x*1 pure
kg/toe kg/toe x*1 pure
kl (fuel oil equivalent) MWh x*11.166007774 energy
km km x*1 length
koe (kg of oil equivalent) MWh x*0.01163 energy
l/100 PK l/100 PK x*1 pure
l/TKT l/TKT x*1 pure
liters Million m³ x*0.000000001 volume
liters m³ x*0.001 volume
long tons (UK) kg x*1016.05 mass
long tons (UK) metric tonnes x*1.016 mass
met. ton CO2e / 1000 km met. ton CO2e / 1000 km x*1 pure
met. ton. CO2e met. ton. CO2e x*1 mass
23 / 25
Convert from Convert to Formula Unit Type
metric tonnes Million metric tonnes x*0.000001 mass
metric tonnes kg x*1000 mass
metric tonnes metric tonnes x*1 mass
metric tonnes carbon met. ton. CO2e x*3.667 mass
equivalent
mg/L mg/L x*1 pure
miles km x*1.6093 length
million liters Million m³ x*0.001 volume
months months x*1 duration
m³ m³ x*1 volume
ounces metric tonnes x*0.0000283495 mass
pounds kg x*0.4536 mass
pounds metric tonnes x*0.0004536 mass
ppm ppm x*1 pure
short tons (US) kg x*907.18 mass
short tons (US) metric tonnes x*0.9072 mass
square meters square meters x*1 area
thousand liters Million m³ x*0.000001 volume
toe GWh x*0.01163 energy
toe MWh x*11.63 energy
toe kWh x*11630 energy
years years x*1 duration

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Disclaimer
Unless otherwise noted, all information, data and other material, including ratings or scores (all such
publication and other reports, materials, or websites of S&P Global
Inc. and/or its affiliates is the exclusive property of S&P Global (Switzerland) SA, a subsidiary of S&P Global
and their third party licensors and may
not be copied or reproduced in any form except with the prior written permission of S&P. The Content shall
not be used for any unlawful or unauthorized purposes. This publication is derived from sources believed to
be
usefulness of any opinions, statements or other Content contained in this publication. The Content and any
other material and information in this publ
either expressed or implied. S&P Global (Switzerland) SA, a subsidiary of S&P Global Inc., and/or its relevant
affiliates and their third-party licensors disclaim all warranties, expressed or implied, including, but not
limited to, implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.

S&P (and any third-party providers, as well as their directors, officers, shareholders, employees or agents)
does not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy, completeness, timeliness or availability of any Content and are
not responsible for any errors or omissions (negligent or otherwise), regardless of the cause, or for the
results obtained from the use of such Content. In no event shall S&P (and any third-party providers, as well
as their directors, officers, shareholders, employees or agents) be liable for any direct, indirect, special,
incidental, and/or consequential damages, costs, expenses, legal fees, or losses (including, without
limitation, lost income or lost profit and opportunity costs) in connection with any use of the Content
(including, without limitation, any opinions or other information expressly or implicitly contained in this
publication).

Any opinions and views in this publication reflect the current judgment of the authors and may change
without notice. Further, any opinions and views expressed by CSA participants do not reflect the policies or
positions of S&P or any other person, organization or company. The Content contained in this publication is
distributed with the understanding that the authors, publishers and distributors are not rendering legal,
accounting or other professional advice or opinions on specific facts or matters and accordingly assume no
liability whatsoever in connection with its use. The Content contained in this publication constitutes neither
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or to engage in any other kind of transaction, and such information is not directed to persons in any
jurisdiction where the provision of such Content would run counter to local laws and regulations. S&P keeps
certain activities of its business units separate from each other in order to preserve the independence and
objectivity of their respective activities. As a result, certain business units of S&P may have information that
is not available to other S&P business units. S&P has established policies and procedures to maintain the
confidentiality of certain non-public information received in connection with each analytical process.

For information provided as part of the

(https://portal.s1.spglobal.com/survey/documents/Use_of_Information_Policy.pdf)

(https://www.spglobal.com/en/privacy/privacy-policy-english).

Copyright© 2024 S&P Global Inc. All rights reserved.

of Dow Jones
licensed to S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC. Redistribution or reproduction in whole or in part are prohibited
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