MSCI launches tool to assess SDGs alignment

MSCI has launched a tool to help investors assess their exposure and alignment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The MSCI SDG Alignment Tool is designed to provide investors with a complete view of a
company’s net contribution towards addressing each of the 17 UN SDGs. The tool brings together MSCI’s framework covering over 8,600 equity and fixed income issuers, with analysis of the full range of a company’s operations, products, services, policies and practices, to evaluate its net contribution to addressing the global challenges the UN SDGs aim to tackle.

Based on data from the new tool MSCI found that:

• Across all 17 SDGs, 54 percent of MSCI ACWI constituents were mostly aligned,
meaning that they showed no strong misalignment on any of the SDGs and had more
areas assessed as aligned than misaligned.

• SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth) showed the highest degree of alignment: of
the MSCI ACWI constituents (as of August 11, 2020), a third were found to be aligned or
strongly aligned with the goal either through offering products enabling economic advancements (such as SME financing, digital divide solution, or education materials
and services) or supporting inclusive and fair employment and support for communities.

• Goals 7 (clean energy), 12 (sustainable consumption and production) and 13 (climate
action) had the highest percentage of companies (8%-9%) misaligned with the goals,
driven mostly by continuing reliance on fossil fuels.