CRISIL has launched ESG scores for 225 companies across 18 sectors in India.

The scores are based on CRISIL’s proprietary framework and is assigned on a scale of 1-100, with 100 denoting best-in-class ESG performance. They show companies with the highest ESG score within a sector outperform the sector average by nearly 9 points because of significantly better performance on three fronts – environmental parameters, overall disclosures, and sustainability practices.

Crisil says information technology (IT) and financial companies have relatively high overall ESG scores, given their inherently lower natural-resource intensity, resulting in lower emissions, waste generation and water usage. These companies are also high employment generators and have relatively better disclosures.

In contrast, oil and gas, chemicals, metals and mining, and cement companies have lower ESG scores, reflecting high natural-resource intensity, and thereby higher emission levels, extractive use of natural resources, potential adverse environmental and community impact, and generally more moderate levels of disclosure.