When I began working at Sustainalytics in 2008, after completing an MBA in finance and sustainability, the business of rating companies on their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance was very much a niche field. Our company had only 20 people in a single office in Toronto, where we produced reports on 300 companies, most of them Canadian firms traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Today we have 650 people based in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia providing ESG research, ratings, and data on tens of thousands of companies. And we’re not alone: A handful of other big rating firms, along with dozens more smaller organizations, distribute some sustainability data.
A version of this article appeared in the September–October 2020 issue of Harvard Business Review.
