Seeking Return on ESG

The report identifies three primary failures in the current ESG reporting landscape: the high administrative burden on companies, the lack of comparability between company metrics, and the opacity of ESG ratings agencies. It argues that while ESG integration is linked to superior financial performance, the reporting ecosystem remains fragmented and uncoordinated. To address this, the World Economic Forum proposes improving ecosystem transparency through an interactive map, fostering cross-system dialogue between investors and companies, and tightening measurement methodologies to reduce company-specific variations in data.

• There is a strong correlation between integrating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations into management and achieving superior long-term financial returns and societal value.
• Companies face significant burdens in ESG reporting, specifically regarding the difficulty of navigating various reporting standards, measuring 'social' (S) metrics, and managing an excessive volume of unique data requests from external providers.
• ESG data lacks intercompany comparability because companies use different classifications and specific denominators for metrics, making it difficult for investors to perform 'apples-to-apples' comparisons even within the same industry.
• A lack of transparency regarding the methodologies used by ESG ratings agencies creates market confusion and reduces the trust that investors and companies place in the resulting scores.
• The ESG reporting ecosystem suffers from a lack of coordination and alignment, which limits the impact of individual reforms and necessitates system-level action in transparency, dialogue, and methodology.
• The World Economic Forum's 'Building an Effective Ecosystem for ESG' initiative plans to implement specific 2019 actions, including an interactive ecosystem map and the use of its platform to facilitate stakeholder dialogue.

APA

World Economic Forum (2019). Seeking Return on ESG. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_ESG_Report_digital_pages.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Seeking Return on ESG. 2019. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_ESG_Report_digital_pages.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Seeking Return on ESG |date=January 2019 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_ESG_Report_digital_pages.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2019seeking, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Seeking Return on ESG}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2019}, month = jan, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_ESG_Report_digital_pages.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }