ESG IQ Web Application
User Guide
Last updated: September 2023
1 Introduction
From resource scarcity to changing governance standards and from public opinion to the evolving regulatory landscape, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors can have an impact on the long-term risk and return profile of your organisation.
Consumers are now demanding higher standards of sustainability from organisations and transparency in their operations. Regulators and policymakers are increasingly driven by ESG issues such as environmental pollution and workplace diversity. The investor community is also becoming increasingly ESG-aware, with around a quarter of the assets under management in the US - roughly $12 trillion - being ESG-rated investments.
However, the various data providers for ESG standards, quality, metrics and intent return different scores for the same organisation. This inconsistency poses a problem for financial services, corporates and government bodies as they are unable to reliably quantify and communicate their ESG position and commitments to investors, regulators and the public.
The ESG IQ web application is the solution. A 'big data' analytics platform developed by KPMG's Lighthouse engineers and data scientists in conjunction with Google Cloud, aimed at providing clients with a clear understanding of the ESG profile of any organisation (and the ESG profile of their financial assets).
ESG IQ enables clients to select and pool structured ESG data from multiple sources, such as Refinitiv and S&P Trucost, and unstructured data from a range of alternative sources, such as news reports and legal documents using advanced Natural Language Processing (NLP).
The processing and analytics on this extraordinary data capture lead to a reliable ESG positioning for your organisation that you can clearly understand and confidently use in your risk management frameworks, disclosures, public perception and strategic decision making.
1.1 Scope
This document provides an overview of the ESG framework and detailed guidance on how to configure the system, navigate around the environment, understand the information that is available and use the application features.
This user guide demonstrates the genuine functionality of the ESG IQ platform. It is important to note, however, that throughout this document and within all screenshots and illustrations, the names of clients, corporations, government bodies and individuals have been replaced with imaginatively invented alternatives for reasons of confidentiality. All data is representative of the software, but is not a reflection of real world activity, organisations or individuals.
2 The ESG Framework
In this section, an overview of the default ESG framework structure for ESG IQ, split into pillars, subpillars and metric levels is explained. These metrics are combined to produce a final ESG score for a particular entity. An Entity is the subject of the measurement exercise – for example, a corporation or government department. Entities all share the same three pillars and the same four-layer structure, as depicted in Figure 1, however they have different metrics and subpillars feeding into these three pillars.
Table 1, below, explains the categorisation for pillars and subpillars used when calculating the ESG score.
| Pillars | Subpillars |
|---|---|
| Environment | Climate Change |
| Waste and Resource | |
| Initiative and Innovation | |
| Social | Workforce |
| Diversity and Inclusion | |
| Community | |
| Product Liability | |
| Governance | Strategy and Regulation |
| Board and Leadership | |
| Shareholder Engagement |
The term Portfolio refers to the group of entities chosen for analysis. The portfolio is selected to suit a given entity’s context, such as an investment portfolio, a lending portfolio or a group of suppliers. A user can optionally assign a weighting to a portfolio to reflect its level of importance to their context.
2.1 Environment Pillar
The Environment pillar demonstrates how an entity impacts on the environment compared to other entities in the same Sector (that is, the area of business is which the entity operates). This pillar includes three subpillars:
- Climate Change: This subpillar measures the entity's output effect on the environment relative to its peers and the targets they have set out for environment related improvements.
- Waste and Resources: This subpillar measures the entity's level of waste relative to its peers as well as the level to which they use their resources efficiently.
- Initiative and Innovation: This subpillar highlights initiatives run by the entity that aim to boost environmental performance, as well as the performance of these initiatives.
2.2 Social Pillar
The Social pillar measures an entity's inclusiveness and social consciousness with four subpillars:
- Workforce: This subpillar measures the treatment and wellbeing of the employees as well as the benefits they receive relative to other comparable entities.
- Diversity and Inclusion: This subpillar measures the diversity represented by the entity's demographics (at all levels) as well as highlighting the policies in place that ensure equality and fairness.
- Community: This subpillar measures the entity's social contribution, for example, supporting a charity.
- Product Liability : This subpillar measures the safety of the entity's product and output, the exposure to risk and the level of appropriate mitigation in place.
2.3 Governance Pillar
The Governance pillar quantifies how an entity is managed and includes three subpillars:
- Strategy and Regulation: This subpillar investigates the entity's strategy moving forward, as well as the regulatory frameworks in place for dealing with matters such as fraud and whistleblowing.
- Board and Leadership: This subpillar investigates who makes up the company's board and whether the board members and executives are performing well for the entity.
- Shareholder Engagement: This subpillar measures the level at which shareholders get a say in the running of the company and whether every shareholder is well represented.
2.4 Frameworks and Data Sources
ESG IQ uses the following frameworks and data sources.
- GRI Framework
- KPMG ESG Framework
- SASB Framework
- WEF Framework
- UN - SDG Framework
- Bloomberg
- Refinitiv
- S&P Trucost
- Brandwatch
3 The Guided Tour
This section provides a high-level tour of the features of ESG IQ, intended to orientate the new user to the application.
A detailed investigation of each area can be found in Section 5 - Detailed System Features.
3.1 Login Page
Note that first-time users must contact their Administrator or ESG IQ support using the number given HERE to organise their login credentials.
These credentials will include a link to open your ESG IQ session. Login using the dedicated link and credentials. You will be presented with the login screen.
If you have a KPMG Google account, click the SIGN IN WITH GOOGLE option.
Otherwise, to login to the application, enter your email address and password and then click on SIGN IN WITH PASSWORD.
3.1.1 Email Verification
If this is your first time logging on, you will be required to verify your email address. A verification email will be sent to your email address. Clicking on the link in the email will complete verification. This is a one-time requirement. Once your email address is known to the system you will not need to complete this step again.
3.1.2 Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
To ensure the safety and integrity of your data and users, ESG IQ uses MFA as part of the standard login procedure.
On your first login, you will be invited to set up MFA on your mobile phone. From that point onwards, whenever you login you will have a one-time passcode (OTP) sent to your mobile phone in addition to entering the password. Entering the OTP will complete the login process.
Note: Users who stay inactive in the application for 20 minutes will be timed out and will need to login to the application again.
More detailed information on the login process can be found in section 4.1.
By default, following login, your session will open on the Portfolio Summary page.
3.1.3 Reset Password
If you have forgotten your password, please use the Reset Password link on the log in screen. As shown in the below
Enter your email address which registered with ESG IQ.
Note: If you are having any problems with this please call us on the number given HERE
or email esgiq-support@kpmg.co.uk .
3.2 Portfolio Summary Page
After login, by default you are presented with the Portfolio Summary page. This is the home page for the application. It presents an overview of your ESG position, comprising summary data for your various portfolios.
By default, the page will display the scores for all available portfolios, presented by pillars, subpillar, sector and entity.
Choices can be made and applied that will change the summary view using the Filters option on the left. See section 4.4 for details on using and applying filters.
3.2.1 Navigation
As mentioned above, the Portfolio Summary page is the home page, so it may be useful to find your way here from other points during your session. To do so, move across to the list on the left-hand side and click Portfolio Summary.
Note that if this option is not on your screen, the entire left-hand menu may be hidden. If this is the case, there will be a 'burger' menu in the top-left, as highlighted in the screenshot below. Click this menu and it will expand out to show the list of filter and navigation options shown above.
A detailed exploration of the Portfolio Summary page can be found in Section 4.2.
3.3 Portfolio Management Page
This page is where administrators manage the available datasets, noting the following:
- KPMG will manage and configure the initial portfolio settings for you.
- Only Admin users can modify portfolios by adding or removing entities from the portfolio management page.
To navigate to your Portfolio Management page, click on the Name icon in the top-right
of the portal as highlighted in the screenshot below. 
And then select Portfolio Management from the drop-down menu.
NOTE: The dropdown menu with management options will only be visible to Super Admins and Admin users. All other users will only see the options to Force Data Refresh and Logout.
You are presented with the Portfolio Management page.
The page shows a list of available portfolios, the entities present in each portfolio and a range of actions available for you that will be dependent upon your permissions.
More detailed information on portfolio management can be found in Section 4.3.
3.4 User Management
Users with Administrator permissions can manage the addition, deletion, role change and portfolio access for users from the User Management page.
Note: KPMG will undertake the initial user account setup as part of the on-boarding process.
3.4.1 Navigation
To navigate to your User Management page, click on the Name icon in the top-right of the portal and select the User Management option in the dropdown menu.
NOTE: The dropdown menu with management options will only be visible to Super Admins and Admin users. All other users will only see the options to Refresh or Logout.
You will be presented with the User Management page.
The page presents the list of users, their email address and role, and a set of actions you can take depending upon your permissions.
More detailed information on User Management can be found in Section 4.4.
3.5 Entity Overview Page
The Entity Overview page displays a detailed breakdown of the ESG scores for a specific chosen entity.
3.5.1 Navigation
To get to the Entity Overview page, first go to the Portfolio Summary page by clicking Portfolio Summary in the left-hand menu.
Within the Portfolio Summary page, click on your chosen entity from the Name or Entity Score panels, both of which are highlighted in the screenshot below.
You will be presented with the Entity Overview page
for the named entity selected.
The page is divided into 8 panels:
- ESG Overall Score.
- Business Sector.
- Portfolio Listing.
- Environmental Score Breakdown.
- Social Score Breakdown.
- Governance Score Breakdown.
- Time Series Score.
- Score Breakdown in Radar Presentation.
- Score 'Tree' visualisation.
A detailed exploration of the Entity Overview can be found in Section 4.5.1.
3.6 Entity Events Page
Within the Entity Overview, there is a second screen called the Entity Events page. It is a tab on the navigation bar of the Entity Overview page, as highlighted in the screenshot below.
Clicking this tab opens the Entity Events page, as shown.
An Event is a presence of the entity in the public domain resulting in, for example, a cluster of news articles. The data from this event are collected from the various sources that feature the entity on this and closely related topics with similar publication times. They are then grouped and aggregated into an Event.
The Entity Events page provides a visual representation of event information for a selected entity through graphs of the word analysis and event count, and what are known as sentiment tables. The sentiment is an evaluation of the public's reaction to the entity in the context of their ESG footprint; a measure of the vocabulary, emotion and factual judgement found in the data sources, resulting in a negative, neutral or positive score for the entity in the context of the event.
The insights presented on the Entity Event page are driven by unstructured data. That is, data drawn from sources such as news reports and web pages.
A detailed exploration of the Entity Events interface can be found in section 4.5.2.
3.7 Portfolio Event Analysis Page
The Portfolio Event Analysis page provides a summary view of selected event metrics across a portfolio.
To find your Portfolio Event Analysis page, in the left-hand menu, click on Portfolio Event Analysis.
Remember that if this option is not present, click on the 'burger' menu in the top-left to open the menu, as shown in section 3.2.
You will be presented with the Portfolio Event Analysis page.
The events are presented in the form of a Word Analysis Cloud, graphs: News Trends over Time by pillar and News by Subpillar, a list of news articles and their Event Sentiment, Subpillar Mentions over time, and a Monthly Subpillar digest. by default, the insights presented on this page are driven by unstructured data.
A more detailed exploration of Portfolio Event Analysis can be found in section 4.6.
3.8 Sector Analysis
To find your Sector Analysis page, click on the Sector Analysis tab on the left-hand pane.
Remember that if this option is not present, click on the 'burger' menu in the top-left to open the menu, as shown in section 3.2.
You will be presented with the Sector Analysis page.
The Sector Analysis page details sector specific data across a selected portfolio in different graphical formats: ESG Overall Score, Sentiment, Pillar Scores, Subpillar Scores and entities within the Sector.
A detailed explanation of Sector Analysis can be found in section 4.7.
3.9 Structured and Unstructured Data
ESG IQ provides insights from two different data types - structured and unstructured data. Each data source has its own specific modelling algorithms for uncovering patterns from its raw form. The application features a Data Type filter for toggling between structured and unstructured data.
3.9.1 Structured Data
Structured data sources provide authoritative, quantitative data which can be presented in a tabular format. This data is mainly from formal reports and data tables. The generic workflow for processing structured data involves data cleaning and transformation before branching off into two pipelines:
- The Metric Selection Pipeline Metrics are selected based on those that are most frequently reported by the sector. Deduplication of repeated metrics and those with too little data are removed
- The Daily Scoring Pipeline leverages the metrics shortlisted by the Metric Selection Pipeline to generate daily scores for entities. The scoring model adopts a bottom-up approach by scoring metrics first, then processing at subpillar and pillar levels and finally at an overall ESG level.
3.9.2 Unstructured Data
Unstructured data used by ESG IQ is qualitative information generally from online news providers. The data may be either sourced from content producers directly or from third-party content aggregators.
The workflow for processing unstructured raw data involves cleaning text in the news articles, separating by topic and entity and conducting sentiment analysis with machine learning models. Data is then classified by relevance to subpillars in the ESG framework. The interim outputs of these steps is used to develop the final scoring model for entities.
A key output of the unstructured workflow is the sentiment implicit to a news article. In ESG IQ, this sentiment value is a weighted measurement drawn from analysis of the vocabulary, emotion and factual judgement relating to a particular subpillar. This sentiment value is a qualitative evaluation of the news media reaction to the company which provides invaluable dimension and human meaning to the more structured and quantitative data.
Below are a couple of graphical representations of structured and unstructured data. Firstly, the ESG IQ Scoring Workflow:
And secondly, the Entity Overview Screen with a Structured Filter Applied.
3.9.3 Event Clustering
News articles from different sources that have similar topics and proximal publication times are grouped into events and presented on the screen together. For example:
| Event | Source | Mention | Publication Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enron scandal | theguardian.com | White House team concludes that a collapse of Enron would pose little risk to the US economy. | 03 Oct 2001 |
| Enron scandal | Britannica.com | Enron scandal, series of events that resulted in the bankruptcy of the U.S. energy, commodities, and services company | 05 Oct 2001 |
| Enron scandal | Bloomberg.com | Lay founded Enron with the merger of two regional natural gas pipeline companies and, during the subsequent 16 years, transformed the Wall Street darling into America's most famous example of corporate greed and corruption | 02 Oct 2021 |
The purpose of event clustering is to mine the information and group all the mentions talking about the same event together so that the significance of the event can be quantified by considering the number of mentions in the cluster as well as the popularity of the media from which the news originated.
An event usually groups around a major incident or action which has significant impact and quickly becomes highlighted within the system. This can be helpful for reactive tactical decisions in the short term as well as providing a platform for strategic decisions over the longer term.
4 Detailed System Features
This section goes into further detail for each of the ESG IQ functional areas described in section 3.
4.1 Login Page
The Login Page is the starting point for a user session or the point of re-entry for
users that receive a session time-out following 20 minutes of inactivity.
The page presents you the way to authenticate yourself and log into the application:
- Sign in with Password - Enter your email address and password and click SIGN IN WITH PASSWORD.
4.1.1 Email Verification
If this is your first time logging on, you will be required to verify your email address. A verification email will be sent to your email address. Clicking on the link in the email will complete verification. This is a one-time requirement. Once your email address is known to the system you will not need to complete this step again.
4.1.2 Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
To ensure the safety and integrity of your data and users, ESG IQ uses MFA as part of the standard login procedure.
On your first login, you will be invited to set up MFA on your mobile phone. From that point onwards, whenever you login you will have a one-time passcode (OTP) sent to your mobile phone. Entering the OTP will complete the login process.
If you have forgotten your password or have any other problems logging in, please contact your administrator or call ESG IQ support using the number given HERE.
4.1.3 Reset Password
If you have forgotten your password, please use the Reset Password link on the log in screen. As shown in the below
Enter the email address registered with ESG IQ.
Note: If you are having any problems with this please call us on the number given HERE
or email esgiq-support@kpmg.co.uk .
4.2 Portfolio Summary Page
By default, logging in takes you to your Portfolio Summary page, presenting overview information for your portfolio. At the top of the page is the overall ESG score, and scores for the Environment, Social and Governance pillars.
Beneath the KPMG scores are three horizontal bar charts displaying your portfolio subpillar score, your entity score aggregated by sector, and your entity overall score. By default, the three bar charts will each present the top five category scores in descending order. You can click on the arrow in the top-right corner of the chart to reverse the order.
The Subpillar Score has its bars colour-coded according to the pillar membership of the subpillar. For example, the bar entitled: Workforce is under the Social pillar and hence is coloured amber. The subpillars related to the Environment pillar are coloured green and those related to the Governance pillar are magenta.
Note that this colour-coding does not apply on other charts. In general, colour coding follows a 'traffic light' system, as follows:
| Score Range | Colour Coding | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Scored less than 30 | Red |
| 2 | Scored at least 30 but less than 70 | Amber |
| 3 | Scored at least 70 | Green |
The lower section of the Portfolio Summary page is a table showing all the holdings of the selected portfolios paginated every 20 rows.
Users can configure which column(s) are to be displayed. By hovering over the blue header bar, a line of three dots appears against each of the column headings. Clicking on the three dots triggers a drop-down menu of options. Like this one for Name:
Click the Show Columns option to open the Columns interface, in which you can select the columns you would like to feature in the summary listing.
The columns available for selection and display are as follows:
| Column Name | Description | Note | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ISIN | ISIN of the instrument | This element is a link to the instrument's Entity Overview Page |
| 2 | Name | Name of the instrument | This element is a link to the instrument's Entity Overview Page |
| 3 | Portfolio | Portfolio(s) that holds the instrument | This element is a link to the Portfolio Summary Page. In cases of multiple portfolios, the portfolios will be space-delimited, and each portfolio will be a link |
| 4 | Weight | Weighting given to this instrument in the portfolio(s) | In cases of multiple portfolios, weightings will be space-delimited and in the order of the portfolios. Note that the minimum weighting is 0.001%, hence the figure is given to three decimal places. Note also that default values for weightings are set by KPMG |
| 5 | Sector | Sector of the instrument | This element is a link to the Sector Analysis Page |
| 6 | ESG Score | KPMG overall ESG score of the instrument | This element displays the category score with a red-amber-green colour-code |
| 7 | Environment Score | Environment score of the instrument | This element displays the category score with a red-amber-green colour-code |
| 8 | Social Score | Social score of the instrument | This element displays the category score with a red-amber-green colour-code |
| 9 | Governance Score | Governance score of the instrument | This element displays the category score with a red-amber-green colour-code |
| 10 | Environment Weight | Weighting applied to the environment score | Currently this score is tied to the instrument's sector |
| 11 | Social Weight | Weighting applied to the social score | Currently this score is tied to the instrument's sector |
| 12 | Governance Weight | Weighting applied to the governance score | Currently this score is tied to the instrument's sector |
Clicking the three dots in a column header also brings further options for the summary listing presentation, as follows:
-
Sort by ASC : Sort the column information into ascending order.
-
Sort by DESC : Sort the column information into descending order.
-
Pin to left/right : Move the column to the left or to the right relative to the other columns.
-
Filter : Choosing the Filter option displays a pop-up interface in which you can enter a search string against which to filter the column content. For example, in the screenshot below, the value JUL has been entered, along with the operator contains , thereby removing all entries in the column list that do not contain the string JUL.
As you can see, various filter criteria, and multiple filters, can be applied to the column filter.
- Unsort : Once any of the menu options has been used, the Unsort option becomes available and can be used to return the column to its default settings.
Note that not all the options are available for every column.
Additionally, users can choose filters on the left of the page to select the portfolios that this page should display, as well as the data type on which the scores should be based.
4.3 Portfolio Management
As described in section 2, clicking the Name icon in the top-right of any ESG IQ screen opens a dropdown list which provides access to the Portfolio Management pages, where Super Admin or Admin users can configure and work with their portfolios. A table of portfolios is displayed with the portfolio name, date of record creation, member entities, and a list of available actions, described below.
- Hovering over the heading bar reveals three vertical dots associated with each heading. Clicking on the dots opens a drop-down menu of options for how the page information is displayed. In the screenshot below, the three dots associated with the Date Created column have been clicked.
The following options are available:
-
Sort by ASC : Sort the column information in ascending order.
-
Sort by DESC : Sort the column information in descending order.
-
Pin to left/right : Move the column to the left or to the right relative to the other columns.
-
Filter : Choosing the Filter option displays a pop-up interface in which you can enter a search string against which to filter the column content. For example, in the screenshot below, the value JUL has been entered, along with the operator contains , thereby removing all entries in the table that do not contain the string JUL at some point in their creation date.
-
As you can see, various filter criteria, and multiple filters, can be applied to the column filter.
-
Unsort : Once any of the menu options has been used, the Unsort option becomes available and can be used to return the column to its default settings.
-
To the right of each of the portfolio entries is a list of five Action icons.
These action icons provide the following capabilities:
The View Icon opens a page on the details of the chosen portfolio; specifically, the Entity Names it comprises, the ISIN number and the Weighting assigned to each entity.
Note: The ISIN is the International Securities Identification Number. This is a global standard identifier for a security. It is a 12-digit alphanumeric, with the first two characters identifying the country of registration.
The Settings Icon provides an interface for accessing the configurable settings
for the portfolio entry.
The Upload and Download Icons facilitate the downloading of the portfolio data in Excel spreadsheet form, or the uploading of relevant documents and data to the portfolio.
The Delete Icon allows you to remove the entity from the portfolio listing.
- In the top-right of the page is the option to Add Portfolio. As the name suggests, clicking this button gives you a pop-up into which you can add the name of your new portfolio.
Enter the portfolio name and click ADD. The portfolio will be added to the listing.
4.4 User Management
As described in section 2, clicking the Name icon in the top-right of any ESG IQ screen opens a dropdown list that provides access to the User Management interface, in which Super Admin or Admin users can create, delete and update the roles of users, and manage user access to portfolios. A list of users is displayed with the user's name, email address, date of record creation, the user's role, and a list of actions that can be taken with regard to that user, which are described below.
- Hovering over the heading bar reveals three vertical dots associated with each heading. Clicking on the dots opens a dropdown menu of options for how the page information is displayed. In the screenshot below, the three dots associated with the Date Created column have been clicked.
The following options are available:
-
Sort by ASC : Sort the column information in ascending order.
-
Sort by DESC : Sort the column information in descending order.
-
Pin to left/right : Move the column to the left or to the right relative to the other columns.
-
Filter : Choosing the Filter option displays a pop-up interface in which you can enter a search string against which to filter the column content. For example, in the screenshot above, the value JUL has been entered, along with the operator contains , thereby removing all entries in the table that do not contain the string JUL at some point in their creation date.
-
As you can see, various filter criteria, and multiple filters, can be applied to the column filter.
-
Unsort : Once any of the menu options has been used, the Unsort option becomes available and can be used to return the column to its default settings.
-
To the right of each of the user entries is a line of three Action icons.
These icons provide the following capabilities (depending upon your role permissions):
The Edit Icon opens a page that allows you to edit the name and email address of the chosen user, and assign their role.
The Manage User Icon provides an interface for accessing the configurable
settings for the user; specifically, assigning them portfolios.
The Delete Icon allows you to remove the user from the application.
- In the top-right of the page is the option to Add User. Clicking Add User will trigger a pop-up form.
Enter the user's details.
Note that the roles available for you to assign will be up to and including your role, not above. When you are ready, click ADD. The user will be added to the system.
4.5 Entity Page
Detailed information about each entity is presented on the Entity page. This can be found by clicking on any entity, for example, in the Entity Score pane or the Name column of the Portfolio Summary page, as highlighted in the screenshot below.
This will open the Entity Overview page.
4.5.1 Entity Overview Page
The Entity Overview Page displays a detailed breakdown of an entity's ESG performance based on the selected data type and a summary of the events that involve the entity within the selected date range. All scores are out of 100.
Towards the top-left of the page, there is a navigation bar that allows you to select between the Overview and the Events subpages. By default, you will be in the Overview subpage, as indicated by the blue shading and the white underline.
Within the Overview subpage, a total of nine cards are displayed. The line of three cards along the top show firstly, the entity's Overall ESG Score, their Name and a visual representation of the overall score; secondly, the entity's Sector; and thirdly, the Portfolio(s) that host this entity.
Score Breakdown
The next four cards each show an interactive pillar score breakdown.
The three cards in the main central panel each list a hierarchical breakdown for the Environmental, Social and Governance pillars. The top of the hierarchy shows the pillar score for the entity; the first level shows the subpillar scores; the second level show the metrics scores. The number in brackets next to the sub-pillar counts the number of metrics beneath it.
To drill down still further, each subpillar can be opened by clicking the chevron to the left of the subpillar name. This allows you to see all metrics involved in scoring the particular subpillar, as shown in the coloured areas in the screenshot below.
The fourth card, featuring a coloured wheel beneath the score breakdowns, is a radar chart of the breakdown of the scores. The inner ring represents Environment, Social and Governance scores; the outer ring shows subpillar scores under each pillar. The subpillars are colour coded according to their parent pillar with the angle of the arc occupied by the pillars and subpillars representing the weighting of the score. For example, if subpillar A and B are weighted at 25% and 75% respectively, the angle of arc occupied by subpillar B should be three times that of subpillar A. Hovering on the arcs of the radar will show a pop-up tooltip showing the name of the pillar or subpillar and the corresponding score.
A card focusing on the 7-day historical overall scores is also presented.
When hovering on the individual data points, a tooltip containing the actual score will be displayed, as shown above.
The final card displays an interactive 'tree' visualisation, breaking down the scores.
By default, the tree shows four nodes: Overall, Environment, Social, and Governance, each with their respective score. Users can click on the nodes to expand and collapse the subtree. They can also drag the tree to re-position it or zoom in and out by scrolling when the cursor is in the card. Note that users can only move the entire tree but not the individual nodes or edges.
Score tree weightings
Each pillar E,S,G will have different weightings totalling 100%. These weighting values are based on the frequency these are reported for the sector the entity sits in. In other words if the sector is heavily focussed on reporting its Social metrics more weight will be attributed to the Social score within the overall ESG score.
When each E,S, G pillar is selected, the score tree shows the branches of sub-pillars beneath it such as Board Diversity under Social.
The weightings for each of these sub-pillars will total that of the pillar e.g. 44% for Social in the example above.
The same can be said of the metric weights below sub-pillars. As a result the impact of individual metrics on the overall score can be seen.
Note Sub-pillar weights will round to the nearest 1. Metric weights will round to two decimal places to allow them to be compared where they break down to small values.
4.5.2 Entity Events Page
The Entity__Events page shows a summary of all the events within a selected timeframe for the selected entity.
To navigate to the Entity Events page, first select an entity from the listing in the Portfolio Summary (see section 4.5.1 for more detail). This will take you to the entity's Event Overview page. From there, click on the Events tab in the upper-left header bar, as highlighted in the screenshot below.
You are presented with the Entity Events page, comprising three cards.
Card 1: Word Analysis Cloud
The top-left card hosts a Word Analysis cloud. Each word in the cloud is contained in a rectangle of a size proportional to the total number of its occurrences in all the events within the selected timeframe. When hovering the cursor over a rectangle, a tooltip showing the total number of occurrences is displayed.
Clicking on a rectangle applies a filter to the page causing only events that contains that particular word to be featured. Note that you can also apply this filter manually - and for any word, not just those in the Word Cloud - by typing a search string into the search bar in the left panel of the web application.
Card 2: Event Count Bar Chart
The top right card shows a time series stacked bar chart of event counts. The height of the stacked bar is the number of relevant news articles identified on that day. The height of each individual rectangle within the stacked bar represents the number of relevant news articles of a particular event on that day.
Hovering the cursor over a rectangle triggers a tooltip displaying the date of the event, the unique identifier for the event, and the number of news articles regarding the event on that day, as shown in the screenshot above. Clicking the rectangle filters the entire Entity Events page to display only news articles concerning that one event. (The filter can be cleared by clicking the entry in the Event Count bar chart once more.)
Note the colours in the bar chart do not correspond to the pillar colours. In this particular representation, colours are used only to distinguish between bars and individual events.
Card 3: Sentiment Table
The lower card contains a table of all the relevant news article according to the selected filters. Each row of the table depicts a news article's sentiment as either positive, negative or neutral.
A news article covering more than one subpillar will have multiple rows. For example, if a news article has relevance to three of the company's subpillar, there will be three rows for this article, one for each subpillar, along with a subpillar specific sentiment for each one.
The table is paginated every 20 rows and consists of six columns:
| Column Name | Description | Note | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Subpillar | The subpillar that this row addresses | This element is a link to filtering the entity event page to show only news articles of relevance to this subpillar |
| 2 | Date | Date of the news article | |
| 3 | Source | Site where the news article was published | |
| 4 | Headline | Headline of the news article | This element is also a link to the original news article |
| 5 | Sentiment | Subpillar-specific sentiment of this news article | This element can either be positive (green), neutral (grey) or negative (red) |
| 6 | Portfolio | Portfolio which has a position on this entity | This element is also a link to the portfolio summary page |
4.5.3 Date Range Selection
By default, the application applies a retrospective 30-day filter based on the current date. The Date Range filter allows you to change this. Enter a Start Date and End Date in the panel on the left-hand side to query entity events information for a specific time interval.
The date range is a maximum 3 month period and allows you to analyze news from that period. Please note, scores are not recalculated based on the date, scores are based on all data from the last two years. The selected date range, narrows down news from the period selected.
For structured data, the 3 month data range, indicates on the Time Series graph, any changes in the score over that period.
Applying the filter changes the page content to the news articles that fall within the selected date range. Note that, as ESG IQ only supports events starting from 1st Jan 2019, there are no relevant data feeds prior to that date.
4.6 Portfolio Event Analysis Page
The Portfolio Event Analysis page provides a summarised view of event metrics across a selected timeframe and portfolio.
The page comprises the following four panels.
4.6.1 Pillar News Trends Over Time
The uppermost panel provides an overview of the presence of relevant news articles per day, split out and colour-coded into the three ESG pillars.
Hovering over any point in the graph will trigger a pop-up providing the detail which composes that point on the graph. For example, in the screenshot above, the user has hovered over the Governance line at the point for 3rd February 2022 to reveal there were 56 news articles found for that day relevant to Governance.
4.6.2 Word Analysis Cloud
Central to the page is a Word Analysis cloud. Each word in the cloud is in a rectangle of a size proportional to the total number of the word's occurrences in all the events within the selected timeframe. When hovering the cursor over a rectangle, a tooltip showing the total number of occurrences is displayed, as depicted for the word 'reuters' in the screenshot below.
Clicking on a rectangle uses that word to apply a filter to the whole page, causing only events that contains that particular word to be featured.
4.6.3 Page Filters
Apart from clicking in the word cloud, users can also apply a filter by typing a string into the search bar on the left menu and hitting return or clicking on the Search icon. For example, in the case below, by typing the word 'bank' in the word filter, the page will re-render, displaying the data for news articles that contains the keyword 'bank'.
Note there is a difference between this use of filtering on a word and the same process on the Entity Events page. This word cloud is based on the entire portfolio, while the Entity Events page is based on a selected entity.
Similarly, you can filter by subpillar to return insights related only to that subpillar. For example, in the screenshot below, after selecting 'Workforce' from the dropdown menu, the page displays only insights and information relevant to the 'Workforce' subpillar.
4.6.4 News by Subpillar
In the third pane, the Portfolio Event Analysis page displays the news count over the chosen time frame in a bar chart stacked by subpillar categories.
The full height of the bar represents the total number of subpillar-related news articles on that specific day. The height of each individual rectangle within the stack represents the number of news articles related to a particular subpillar. Hovering the cursor over one of the rectangles will show this information in a tooltip displaying the date, the subpillar, and the number of news article linked to that subpillar on that day. In the example above, the user has selected the 25th January, 2022. The tooltip is hovering over the green rectangle in the stack, so the pop-up tells us that, out of the 76 subpillar-related news articles that day, there are four related to Climate Change.
Clicking a rectangle filters the page to display only news articles linked to the selected subpillar. The filter can be cleared by clicking the cross button on the subpillar filter on the left-hand panel.
4.6.5 Event Listing
The bottom card contains a table of all the relevant news article according to the selected filters. Each row of the table depicts a news article's date of publication, online source, the headline, the portfolio it belongs to and a representation of the sentiment of the article as either positive, negative or neutral, colour-coded green, white or red respectively.
The Headline text is a clickable link that will take you to the cited source web page.
Where a news article covers more than one subpillar it will have more than one row. For example, if a news article affects a company's subpillars A, B, and C, there will be three rows for the article, one for each subpillar, showing the corresponding subpillar-specific details and sentiment.
The table is paginated every 20 rows and consists of six columns, as follows:
| Column Name | Description | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Subpillar | The subpillar to which this row relates | This is a link. Clicking it will filter the Entity Event page to show only news articles relevant to this specific subpillar |
| 2 | Date | Date of the news article | |
| 3 | Source | Site where the news article was published | |
| 4 | Headline | Headline of the news article | This is a link. Clicking it will take you to the original news article |
| 5 | Sentiment | Subpillar-specific sentiment implicit to this news article | This element can either be Positive (green), Neutral (white) or Negative (red) |
| 6 | Portfolio | Portfolio which has a position on this entity | This element is a link. Clicking it will take you to the portfolio summary page |
4.7 Sector Analysis Page
The Sector Analysis page details sector-related information across a selected portfolio in five panels.
4.7.1 Overall Score by Sector
The first panel is a bar chart showing the overall ESG scores across the applicable sectors in a given time frame. The height of the bar indicates the score for the sector. Hovering over any of the bars will display the name of the sector and its exact score. Clicking any of the bars will apply the sector as a filter for the whole page.
4.7.2 Sentiment
The sentiment panel contains a multi-line graph plotting the number of relevant news articles by day. They are classified as having a positive (green), neutral (amber) or negative (red) sentiment.
Hovering over the graph will return the detail used in creating the plot point on the graph. For example, in the screenshot above, the user is hovering over the green line (positive sentiment) on the 26th January 2022.
4.7.3 Pillar Scores
The third panel breaks down the presentation into the Environmental, Social and Governance scores with each pillar represented as a separate bar.
The height of each bar indicates the pillar score for the sector. Hovering over any of the bars will display the sector name and its corresponding pillar score, as shown in the screenshot above.
4.7.4 Entities within Sector
In the central panel, the top 10 entities in terms of ESG scores are displayed in a horizontal bar chart. We have, of course, removed the names of actual companies from the screenshot.
Hovering over any of the bars will display the entity name and the ESG score, as shown. By default, the entities are listed in descending order of ESG score. Users can click on the arrow at the top-right corner of the card to reverse the order.
4.7.5 Subpillar Scores
The fifth panel contains a radar chart that displays the subpillar scores for the selected sectors. Hovering over the dots on the radar chart will display the subpillar name and the subpillar score.
4.8 Sector Filtering
The sector filter allows users to query sector analysis information based on a specific sector and update the page accordingly.
To achieve this, move to the menu on the left-hand side an find the Sector field. This is a drop-down list of applicable sectors.
Click on the Arrow to the right of the field and select the sector you wish to filter against, as the user has done in the screenshot above, selecting the Mining sector.
The page filters on the chosen sector and redraws the screen with data dedicated to that sector.
5 Statements, Limitations and Disclaimers
This section outlines the restrictions regarding ESG IQ usage. Please consult with us before any of the following are pursued:
- Using data for external or regulatory reporting.
- Downloading reports from the tool.
- Granting access to any third-party service provider.
- Creating admin accounts without consent from KPMG.
- Disclosure of the Software or related documentation.
- Writing any article for publication which refers to the Software, or otherwise providing information relating to the Software or related documentation for such purposes.
- Copying the Software or related documentation in computer readable or human readable form.
- Attempting to reverse compile, disassemble, or reverse engineer the Software.
Furthermore, the ESG IQ application does not constitute any financial advice and neither KPMG nor its suppliers shall be responsible for loss, destruction, or alteration of programs, content, data, and other information resulting from use of the Software.
5.1 FAQ
This section addresses a list of frequently asked questions which users may have when using the ESG IQ web application. If there are any queries that are not covered by this document, please reach out to ESG IQ support using the number below for assistance.
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What is the contact number for ESG IQ help and support?
For any help and support requirement, please call ESG IQ Support on +44 800 028 8531 or email us on esgiq-support@kpmg.co.uk .
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How do I get my credentials for ESG IQ?
Please reach out to ESG IQ support using the number given HERE if you do not have an ESG IQ account or if you have lost your credentials.
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How do I change my password?
If you have forgotten your password please use the Reset Password link on the log in screen. If you are having any problems with this please call us on the number given HERE or email esgiq-support@kpmg.co.uk .
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What is my access level in ESG IQ and what does that imply?
There are three different access levels: user, admin and super admin. If you are an admin user, you should be able to create and modify portfolios. If you are a super admin user, you will be able to invite other users in addition to the admin user options in the management areas. To check your access level, you can click on the avatar icon on the top right corner of the page. Your access level should be under your username in the dropdown menu.
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What are structured or unstructured data types?
Structured data refers to the company reported figures made available via third-party data providers such as Bloomberg and Refinitiv. Unstructured data refers to the ESG-related news articles collected for scoring purposes. For explanations of terminology of this nature, please refer to the glossary and acronyms table in the next section.
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Why does it say "No Data" in some of the pages?
ESG IQ attempts to cache data for better performance. After clicking the avatar icon on the top right corner of the page, a dropdown menu should be available. Click the Force Data Refresh button to have ESG IQ re-fetch data from the database. Should the issue persist, please reach out to ESG IQ support using the number given HERE.
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How can I upload a portfolio?
If you have Admin or Super Admin access level granted, you should be able to see the Portfolio Management option when you click on the avatar icon on the top-right corner of the page. Portfolios can be created and modified following the instructions outlined in Section 5.2, Portfolio Management. To check your access level, please follow FAQ item 4.
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Why are some of the entities in my portfolio not showing in the Portfolio Summary page?
ESG IQ currently supports more than 20,000 listed entities. We are continuously expanding coverage to cater for all use cases. Please reach out to the ESG IQ support using the number given HERE to submit a request ticket for new entities to be added.
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Why are some of the scores shown as N/A in ESG IQ?
ESG IQ attempts to deliver a data-driven ESG insight using structured and unstructured data. In situations where underlying data is insufficient, the score generated would not be of high enough reliability to be displayed. For any queries around our scoring methodology, please refer to the KPMG Methodology Document [Ref: 1], or reach out to ESG IQ support using the number given HERE.
- My username and/or password is not working
Passwords are case sensitive so ensure capslock is off. If copying and pasting ensure there are no extra spaces. If that does not fix things, reach out to the ESG IQ support using the number given HERE.
- Further Information
For more information on ESG IQ please refer to the ESG IQ - KPMG United Kingdom.
5.2 Glossary and Acronyms
| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| ESG IQ | Environmental, Social and Governance IQ |
| ESG Framework | A set of ESG standards for evaluating a company's practices. |
| Entity | An organisation, such as a corporation or government department that is the subject of measurement. |
| Events | Clusters of news articles collected from various sources with similar topics and proximal publish time are grouped into an event. |
| ISIN | International Securities Identification Number. The globally recognised standard identifier for a security. It is a 12-digit alphanumeric, with the first two characters identifying the country of registration. |
| Metrics | Subpillars are further classified into more granular components for scoring purposes. |
| Pillars | A Pillar is the first immediate level of decomposition of the overall ESG score. In the example of KPMG ESG framework structure, the overall score can be split into three pillars - Environment, Social & Governance. |
| Portfolio | The set of data applied to this entity. The grouping of ESG big data sources, selected for the given entity's context, each with a different importance weighting appropriate to that entity. |
| Sector | The category of business is which the entity operates. |
| Sentiment | Weighted measurement of vocabulary emotion and fact judgement grouped into positive, neutral, and negative. |
| Structured Data | Datasets that can be expressed in a tabular format. |
| Subpillars | Pillars are further divided into subpillars. The exact formation of subpillars varies across ESG frameworks. |
| Tenant | A dedicated workspace a client logs into in order to work with their defined portfolio. |
| Unstructured Data | Datasets that cannot be expressed in a tabular format. Examples include free text news articles. |
| Word Analysis | Collection of words, each represented as a rectangle with size proportional to its total number of occurrences in all the events within the selected timeframe. |
6. Appendices
This section presents a keyword table in order to help you to understand the context for a given pillar or subpillar score, and some illustrations to help with understanding the ESG IQ context.
6.1 Pillar and Subpillar Keywords Table
| Pillars | Subpillars | Keywords |
|---|---|---|
| Environment | Climate Change | 'Climate change', 'emission', 'greenhouse', 'gas',' carbon dioxide', 'carbon',' green', 'warming', 'coal','fossil' |
| Waste and Resource | 'Resource use', 'energy', 'bill', 'consumption', 'fuel', 'coal', 'fossil', 'water', 'Waste', 'oil', 'spill', 'toxic', 'chemical', 'hazardous', 'hazard', 'recycled', 'packaging', 'plastic', 'landfill', 'mining', 'pollution' | |
| Initiative and Innovation | 'Initiative', 'strategy', 'policy', 'target', 'goal', 'partnership', 'sustainable', 'sustainability', 'efficiency', 'renewable', 'innovation', 'technology', 'tech', 'research' | |
| Social | Workforce | 'Workforce', 'employee benefit', 'benefit', 'layoff', 'turnover', 'strike', 'training', 'childcare', 'retirement', 'employee health', 'employee safety', 'death', 'injury' |
| Diversity and Inclusion | 'Diversity', 'workplace', 'gender', 'minority', 'black', 'inclusion', 'equal opportunity', 'disabled', 'equal opportunity', 'equality', 'bias', 'harassment', 'bullying', 'discrimination' | |
| Community | 'Community', 'charity', 'social responsibility', 'volunteer', 'voluntary', 'corporate responsibility', 'donation', 'partnership', 'sponsor', 'human right', 'intellectual property', 'copyright', 'child labor', 'animal testing' | |
| Product Liability | 'Product', 'service', 'product safety', 'product recall', 'liability', 'safety issue', 'quality', 'quality control', 'defect', 'recall', 'recalled', 'customer', 'consumer', 'complaint', 'data privacy', 'data security' | |
| Governance | Strategy and Regulation | 'Regulation', 'corporate strategy', 'compliance', 'business ethic', 'audit', 'business risk', 'assurance', 'auditor', 'tax', 'accounting', 'signatory', 'whistleblower', 'money laundering', 'corruption', 'fraud', 'bribery' |
| Board and Leadership | 'Board', 'board member', 'severance', 'leadership', 'compensation', 'chairman', 'CEO', 'executive', 'Director', 'bonus', 'expense', 'committee', 'skill', 'independence', 'tenure' | |
| Shareholder Engagement | 'Shareholder', 'investor', 'stock', 'shareholder engagement', 'shareholder right', 'poison pill', 'dividend', 'proxy', 'voting right', 'disclosure', 'ownership' |
6.2 ESG High Level Methodology
7. About this Document
7.1 References
| Reference | Description |
|---|---|
| Ref. 1. | KPMG Methodology Document |
7.2 Index of Tables
[Table 1: KPMG ESG Framework Subpillar Mapping] (#table-1-esg-framework-subpillar-mapping)
[Table 2: Frameworks and Data Sources] (#table-2-frameworks-and-data-source)
[Table 3 - Event Coverage from Different Media Sources] (#table-2-event-coverage-from-different-media-sources)
[Table 4 - Colour Coding for ESG Scores] (#table-3-red-amber-green-colour-coding-for-esg-scores)
[Table 5 - Portfolio Summary - ESG Portfolio Elements] (#table-4-portfolio-elements)
[Table 6 - Entity Events - News Article Sentiment Table] (#table-5-news-article-sentiment-table)
[Table 7 - Portfolio Event Analysis - News Article Sentiment Table] (#table-6-portfolio-event-analysis-sentiment)
[Table 8 - Pillar & Subpillars Keywords Table] (#table-7-pillar-and-subpillars-keywords)
End of Document
- ESG IQ product team
- ESG IQ product team