New data on negative SDG contributions, methodology enhancements and additional data granularity provide a more comprehensive picture of the market
AMSTERDAM (September 1, 2022) – The Sustainable Development Investments Asset Owner Platform (SDI AOP) and Qontigo, its exclusive distribution partner, have announced significant enhancements to the SDI AOP dataset as part of the August 2022 data release. The data analyzes corporate alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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The latest data release introduces negative SDG contribution information to identify revenues generated by products and services that are defined as inconsistent with achieving the UN SDGs.
“Adding negative contribution data, alongside the positive contributions, is the direct result of regular exchanges with our subscribers. As this community is growing, we are integrating their feedback into the development of the data.”
James Leaton, Research Director, SDI AOP
The approach taken to determine negative SDG contributions follows the same methodology as for the existing positive contributions. The SDI classification focuses on companies’ product and service-related contributions to the SDGs based predominantly on revenues.
“An example of a negative contribution is single use plastic packaging which is not consistent with UN SDG 12 on responsible consumption and production and is the primary contributor to marine plastic pollution under UN SDG 14.”
James Leaton, Research Director, SDI AOP
The SDI AOP works with investors to embed the UN SDGs into their investment processes and integrate SDG contributions into their portfolio management and reporting, enabling target setting and progress monitoring. Alongside the inclusion of negative contributions there were several additional enhancements including methodology refinements relating to the energy transition and built-in indicators of changes in the data.
In response to user demand, the SDI AOP will be increasing the frequency of data releases to quarterly, starting in December 2022. A fixed income mapping was also introduced, to allow users to seamlessly map their instruments to issuer level SDI data.
About SDI Asset Owner Platform
The Sustainable Development Investments Asset Owner Platform (SDI AOP) is responsible for the development and maintenance of the SDI taxonomy and guidance, SDI definitions and SDI classification methodology (www.sdi-aop.org). The SDI AOP consists of asset owners who invest in solutions which contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The SDI AOP uses revenues associated with a company’s products and services as starting points to classify which companies qualify as SDI.
The SDI AOP is comprised of APG, AustralianSuper, British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI) and PGGM. Its underlying data are available to the market through analytics and index provider Qontigo and can be integrated into any investment process. Currently, the SDI AOP dataset covers 8864 entities across equities and fixed income.
About Qontigo — Optimizing Impact™
Qontigo is a leading global provider of innovative index, analytics and risk solutions that optimize investment impact. As the shift toward sustainable investing accelerates, Qontigo enables its clients—financial-products issuers, asset owners and asset managers—to deliver sophisticated and targeted solutions at scale to meet the increasingly demanding and unique sustainability goals of investors worldwide.
Qontigo’s solutions are enhanced by both our collaborative, customer-centric culture, which allows us to create tailored solutions for our clients, and our open architecture and modern technology that efficiently integrate with our clients’ processes.
Part of the Deutsche Börse Group, Qontigo was created in 2019 through the combination of Axioma, DAX and STOXX. Headquartered in Eschborn, Germany, Qontigo’s global presence includes offices in New York, London, Zug and Hong Kong.