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Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Performance Assessment
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Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Performance Assessment

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2024) | Viewed by 18512

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Yelin Fu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
2. College of Economics, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
Interests: supply chain finance; ESG; energy and environmental management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Zelong Yi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Economics, Shenzhen University, 518061 Shenzhen, China
Interests: optimization; supply chain
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. George G.Q. Huang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Industrial and Manufacturig Systems Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China
Interests: manufacturing; logistics; ESG
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Since its debut in a United Nations report in 2006, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria have shifted from the periphery into the mainstream. ESG performance has become a proxy for a company's resilience and risk management capabilities, but it also indicates and enhances the long-term value of a business. Prominent ESG rating agencies, for example, MSCI, Sustainlytics, Moody, and among others, have developed various ESG ratings to assess the ESG performance of companies, funds, and portfolios. However, different rating agencies usually publish different ESG rating results. The disagreement between ESG ratings introduces uncertainty into any decision that is made based on ESG ratings, and thus indicates a challenge for a wide spectrum of decision makers.

This Special Issue calls for a more critical discussion about how ESG performance could be assessed in a more well-designed manner. We particularly invite articles that explore, examine and propose ESG performance assessment rationales and methods. Reviews, as well as prescriptive and experimental research, that assess ESG performance in industry and regions are welcome.

The topics of potential interest include but are not restricted to:

(1) ESG reporting;

(2) ESG ratings;

(3) ESG portfolio optimization;

(4) ESG investing;

(5) Construction of ESG measures;

(6) Uncertainty in ESG performance assessment;

(7) Divergency in ESG rating;

(8) ESG data authenticity;

(9) Decision analytics in ESG;

(10) Efficiency analysis in ESG performance evaluation.

Dr. Yelin Fu
Dr. Zelong Yi
Prof. Dr. George G.Q. Huang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • ESG performance assessment
  • ESG rating
  • ESG data authenticity
  • ESG measure
  • ESG investing

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

25 pages, 4355 KiB  
Article
Choice between Sustainable versus Conventional Investments—Relative Efficiency Analysis from Global and Regional Stock Markets
by Mohd Ziaur Rehman, Md Zulquar Nain, Mohammed Alhashim and Javed Ahmad Bhat
Sustainability 2024, 16(13), 5340; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16135340 - 23 Jun 2024
Viewed by 2297
Abstract
We use the daily data from 1 October 2010 to 1 March 2021 on the stock prices of several global, regional, and country-specific ESG indices of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index family (DJSI) and MSCI family to analyse the relative performance of sustainable [...] Read more.
We use the daily data from 1 October 2010 to 1 March 2021 on the stock prices of several global, regional, and country-specific ESG indices of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index family (DJSI) and MSCI family to analyse the relative performance of sustainable indices (ESG) and corresponding conventional benchmarks. In terms of classic risk and return characteristics and modern portfolio metrics, we report mixed evidence with some sustainability indices marginally outperforming the traditional benchmarks and others staying at parity. Regionally, the evidence is heterogeneous; the Pan Arab, the Middle East (including Israel), the United States, Emerging Markets, and Europe indices reported a slightly superior performance and those belonging to Asia Pacific, Emerging Africa, and Latin America marginally underperformed compared to their conventional counterparts. The findings of this study imply that sustainable investments appear to be an encouraging investment option, although their progress has not been substantial. For an appreciable outperformance of sustainable investments, a more conducive regulatory framework should be established, including robust incentivizing policies concerning tax rebates or low capital costs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Performance Assessment)
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22 pages, 7594 KiB  
Article
Dual Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Index for Corporate Sustainability Assessment Using Blockchain Technology
by Xinlai Liu, Wenbiao Liang, Yelin Fu and George Q. Huang
Sustainability 2024, 16(10), 4272; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16104272 - 19 May 2024
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2822
Abstract
Investors are increasingly relying on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) indexes to obtain a third-party assessment of corporate sustainability performance. Various ESG indexes are, therefore, released by prominent rating agencies, including MSCI, Sustainalytics, Refinitiv, etc. However, existing ESG indexes overvalue the usage of [...] Read more.
Investors are increasingly relying on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) indexes to obtain a third-party assessment of corporate sustainability performance. Various ESG indexes are, therefore, released by prominent rating agencies, including MSCI, Sustainalytics, Refinitiv, etc. However, existing ESG indexes overvalue the usage of massive ESG metrics while ignoring various ESG disclosure levels, leading to critical issues such as limited company coverage, inflexible ESG framework, and obscure assessment processes. This paper proposes a novel Dual ESG Index (DESGI) model using blockchain technology to provide a flexible and transparent corporate sustainability assessment. Firstly, the DESGI model is developed by analogy to the rationale and concepts of the academic credit system due to its advantages of scalability and flexibility. Secondly, blockchain is used to build a transparent environment for ESG assessment. Thirdly, the smart contract and crypto token, as the core blockchain constructs, are used to achieve the dual-dimensional ESG depth and width assessment using ESG GPA and ESG credit, respectively. Finally, a case study is carried out to validate the DESGI by using real-life ESG data and comparing it with four existing ESG indexes. Several managerial implications are also found: (1) DESGI can expand the scope of companies evaluated by ESG criteria regardless of company size or scale; (2) DESGI provides a good potential to fight against greenwashing through the blockchain-based traceability; (3) DESGI can identify the ESG elites who disclose fewer ESG metrics but with excellent ESG performances, which can hardly be achieved using traditional ESG indexes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Performance Assessment)
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24 pages, 2391 KiB  
Article
Drifting from the Sustainable Development Goal: Style Drift in ESG Funds
by Zehua He, Kexin Hu and Zhongfei Li
Sustainability 2023, 15(16), 12472; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151612472 - 16 Aug 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2293
Abstract
In this paper, we investigate the impact of fund style drift away from sustainability on future fund flows and performance within the Chinese market. Utilizing data from four mainstream ESG rating systems, we develop a novel measure of ESG fund style drift, which [...] Read more.
In this paper, we investigate the impact of fund style drift away from sustainability on future fund flows and performance within the Chinese market. Utilizing data from four mainstream ESG rating systems, we develop a novel measure of ESG fund style drift, which enables us to quantify the deviation of a fund’s actual style from its declared sustainable objectives. Our analysis, based on panel and logistic regression techniques, reveals a significant positive relationship between ESG-drift and ESG fund’s flow-performance sensitivity, with a dominant effect on fund flow from individual investors. Interestingly, compared with ESG funds that stick with their sustainability-oriented objectives, funds experiencing ESG-drift exhibit poorer returns, underperformance, smaller fund size, lower subscription rates, lower industry concentration, and lower fund flows, highlighting the crucial role of funds following objectives that prioritize sustainability. However, the ESG-drift does not significantly influence the fund’s future performance. This paper provides pivotal insights into the complex dynamics between a fund’s ESG commitment and its actual style, with important implications for enhancing ESG policies within the regulatory framework of the Chinese mutual fund market. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Performance Assessment)
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17 pages, 1072 KiB  
Article
An ESG Assessment Approach with Multi-Agent Preference Differences: Based on Fuzzy Reasoning and Group Decision-Making
by Yihe Lu, Yinyun Yu and Ting Qu
Sustainability 2023, 15(16), 12235; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151612235 - 10 Aug 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1909
Abstract
The adoption of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) to measure the green development, social responsibility, and public interest of companies is a commonly accepted theme and approach in the industry and academia at present. As ESG assessment is characterized by heterogeneity of subjects, [...] Read more.
The adoption of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) to measure the green development, social responsibility, and public interest of companies is a commonly accepted theme and approach in the industry and academia at present. As ESG assessment is characterized by heterogeneity of subjects, complexity of contents, diversity of scales, and uncertainty of weights, it has led to the variability of ESG assessment results given by different assessment organizations in the same company, which has attracted a lot of criticism. This paper proposes a group decision-making method based on the preferences of multiple subjects to solve the problem of heterogeneity of subjects in ESG assessment. Specifically, for the given ESG evaluation data, the first step is to identify the preferences of subjects and structure the initial group matrix; secondly, the fuzzy inference system is employed to mine the hidden preference information; further, the initial group matrix is revised using the preference information; and finally, the TOPSIS method is applied to aggregate the information and obtain the final ESG score and ranking of each company. This study was tested using statistics from 30 companies released by Harvest Fund in May 2021, which verified the validity and advantages of the method proposed in this paper. The proposed method integrates the preferences of heterogeneous subjects and mines the possible hidden preference information, which increases the interpretation of the information contained in the original ESG data and facilitates the achievement of group consensus. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Performance Assessment)
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14 pages, 1948 KiB  
Article
Investigating the Steady-State Rheological Properties of Activated Sewage Sludge for Effective Post-Treatment
by Hai Lu, Qingpo Li, Xinglin Chen, Huan Deng and Bojiao Yan
Sustainability 2023, 15(13), 9948; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15139948 - 22 Jun 2023
Viewed by 1454
Abstract
Pipeline transportation has become an effective way to transport sludge from wastewater treatment plants due to its high transportation efficiency, low operating cost, and low environmental pollution. Before designing and optimizing the sludge-conveying pipeline, it is first necessary to analyze the rheological properties [...] Read more.
Pipeline transportation has become an effective way to transport sludge from wastewater treatment plants due to its high transportation efficiency, low operating cost, and low environmental pollution. Before designing and optimizing the sludge-conveying pipeline, it is first necessary to analyze the rheological properties of the sludge. In this paper, activated sludge with varying volume concentrations (Cw) of 2.38%, 3.94%, and 5.39% was used as the research object. Under three temperature (T) conditions of 293 K, 298 K, and 303 K, the sludge concentration and temperature were investigated, and based on the results, a rheological model of activated sludge was established. The experimental results indicated that the upward and downward paths of the shear stress change curve were generally similar but did not overlap, and a hysteresis loop was formed between the two due to the characteristics of sludge shear thinning. The limiting viscosity of sludge with different concentrations increased with the increase in sludge concentration. This phenomenon was caused by the differences in the internal flocculent network structure of sludge with different concentrations and the different fluid flow effects. At different shear rates, the shear stress and sludge viscosity in the experiment decreased with the increase in temperature. The stability of the test sludge was weakened with the increase in temperature. Additionally, the viscosity of sludge decreased with the increase in shear rate and then stabilized, exhibiting shear thinning characteristics. The above rheological properties were described using the Bingham and Herschel–Bulkley models. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Performance Assessment)
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27 pages, 2898 KiB  
Article
ESG-Based Performance Assessment of the Operation and Management of Industrial Parks in Taiwan
by Li-Ling Kao
Sustainability 2023, 15(2), 1424; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15021424 - 11 Jan 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 5016
Abstract
The development of industrial parks plays an important role in the economic development of developed and developing countries, but it has recently been affected by globalization and the rise of environmental protection awareness, as 2050 net-zero carbon emissions are being pursued by the [...] Read more.
The development of industrial parks plays an important role in the economic development of developed and developing countries, but it has recently been affected by globalization and the rise of environmental protection awareness, as 2050 net-zero carbon emissions are being pursued by the world’s major economies. To make their development more sustainable, this study evaluates the operational management performance of industrial parks in Taiwan from the perspective of ESG, to inform future industrial development strategies and policy research. First, 61 industrial parks managed by the Taiwanese Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) were selected and underwent a fuzzy Delphi expert questionnaire to screen the ESG-oriented performance indicators; performance was evaluated through the data envelopment analysis (DEA) undesirable outputs model and the window analysis method. The results indicate that the New Taipei Industrial Park performed best in terms of ESG, followed by the Feng-Shan and Anping industrial parks, with the worst performance from the Mei-Lun, Yun-Lin Island, and Hu-Pin industrial parks. Regarding factors affecting the performance of operation management, a Mann–Whitney U test showed that the northern industrial parks performed significantly better than those in the eastern region, those in the municipalities significantly outperformed the nonmunicipalities, and the industrial parks with more clustered industries and those in areas with convenient transportation performed substantially better. Finally, this study summarizes the important issues facing Taiwan’s industrial parks, and it makes policy recommendations, including promoting ESG sustainable development objectives in their operation and management, as well as increasing the investment of government resources and the clustering of industries and transportation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Performance Assessment)
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