MSCI’s ESG Research subsidiary will make its environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) ratings of companies publicly available, it said today.

As of today, the ESG ratings of more than 2,800 companies – those making up the MSCI ACWI index – are accessible via a search tool on msci.com. Next year a further 4,700 companies will be covered as MSCI ESG Research said it planned to make publicly available the ESG ratings for more than 7,500 companies in the MSCI ACWI Investable Markets Index.

Users can see a given company’s ESG rating, ESG rating history, benchmark against peers, and key ESG-related issues affecting individual companies.

MSCI ESG Research LLC, the MSCI company behind the ESG ratings, said the decision was “in recognition of growing momentum and interest from a diverse range of stakeholders in ESG investing”.

Remy Briand, head of ESG at MSCI, said: “The decision to make the MSCI ESG Ratings publicly available is part of a campaign to drive greater transparency in ESG and follows the launch of the MSCI ESG Fund Ratings in July.

remy briand

Remy Briand, head of ESG at MSCI

“We want to encourage open discussion among investors and companies on how to improve sustainability across the board and hope that making the MSCI ESG Ratings available to all will facilitate these discussions.”

Separately, MSCI ESG Research also said it was introducing a “batch reporting service”, which was designed to make clients’ reporting to their clients easier, more comprehensive and frequent.