Glass Lewis to Incorporate Sustainalytics’ ESG Research and Ratings Into Its Standard and Custom Vote Management Services.
AMSTERDAM; SAN FRANCISCO (February 18, 2016) – Sustainalytics, a leading provider of ESG research, ratings and analysis, and Glass Lewis, the leading independent provider of global governance services, today announced a strategic partnership. Glass Lewis will integrate Sustainalytics’ ESG research and ratings on more than 10,000 companies into Glass Lewis’ proxy research and vote management platform.
In the first phase of the partnership, Glass Lewis and Sustainalytics will co-develop a new ESG profile page derived from Sustainalytics ESG data and ratings that will be featured within Glass Lewis’ Proxy Paper reports. In addition, users of Glass Lewis’ proxy voting platform, Viewpoint, will have the ability to incorporate ESG factors into their custom voting policies, tailor workflow and reporting with various ESG criteria and access the full Sustainalytics ESG data set for analysis, screening, voting and engagement purposes.
With more than 250 employees worldwide and expertise across more than 40 sectors, Sustainalytics’ 120 analysts evaluate companies’ management systems, practices, policies and other indicators related to environmental, social and governance risk. It is widely understood that ESG factors can have a significant impact on a company’s ability to deliver value to shareholders.
“The responsibility for ensuring companies are effectively managing the business risks related to environmental and social factors lies squarely with corporate directors,” said Michael Jantzi, Sustainalytics chief executive officer. “Just as portfolio managers and analysts are increasingly integrating ESG factors into their investment processes, those professionals responsible for their firms’ proxy voting policies and, ultimately their actual proxy votes, also need insights into how these issues are being managed within the boardroom. We are pleased to be partnering with Glass Lewis to make these important ESG insights more accessible to governance decision-makers.”
More than 1,200 clients globally use Glass Lewis’ research and technology solutions to inform and facilitate their corporate governance activities. Featuring dramatic enhancements and a redesigned user interface, Glass Lewis’ Viewpoint platform represents a new generation of proxy voting and engagement technology. Its flexible architecture and innovative filter-based content management system will enable investors to seamlessly incorporate Sustainalytics’ content into the proxy voting process, providing consistent ESG integration across the entire asset management process.
“Increasingly, our clients want to better understand how their portfolio companies are managing their ESG risk,” said Glass Lewis chief executive officer, Katherine Rabin. “By combining our governance solutions with Sustainalytics high quality research, extensive data and global scope, we can immediately deliver meaningful ESG insights to Glass Lewis clients, helping them understand and connect with the companies in which they invest.”
About Glass Lewis
Glass Lewis is the leading independent provider of global governance services, helping institutional investors understand and connect with the companies they invest in. We are a trusted ally of more than 1,200 investors globally who use our high-quality, unbiased Proxy Paper research, industry-leading Viewpoint proxy vote management solution, and innovative Meetyl direct-engagement platform to help drive value across all their governance activities. Glass Lewis empowers institutional investors that collectively manage more than $25 trillion to make sound voting decisions at more than 20,000 meetings a year in 100 countries by uncovering and assessing governance, business, legal, political and accounting risks. Founded in 2003, Glass Lewis has more than 360 employees worldwide across offices from headquarters in San Francisco to New York, Washington D.C., Sydney, Australia, Limerick, Ireland, and Karlsruhe, Germany. More information available at www.glasslewis.com.
Media Contact:
Martin Lion
mlion@glasslewis.com
P) +1 415-738-4106
About Sustainalytics
Sustainalytics is an independent ESG and corporate governance research, ratings and analysis firm supporting investors around the world with the development and implementation of responsible investment strategies. With 14 offices globally, Sustainalytics partners with institutional investors who integrate environmental, social and governance information and assessments into their investment processes. Today, the firm has 250 staff members, including more than 120 analysts with varied multidisciplinary expertise of more than 40 sectors. Through the IRRI survey, investors selected Sustainalytics as the best independent responsible investment research firm for three consecutive years, 2012 through 2014 and in 2015, Sustainalytics was named among the top three firms for both ESG and Corporate Governance research. For more information, visit www.sustainalytics.com.
Media Contacts:
Sarah Cohn
sarah.cohn@sustainalytics.com
P) +1 646.963.6944
Melissa Chase
melissa.chase@sustainalytics.com
P) +1 647.317.3646