This report analyses the link between ESG integration and global investor returns, drawing on cross-regional data and sector comparisons. It assesses how environmental, social, and governance factors correlate with performance, highlighting variations across markets and asset classes. The study provides evidence-based insights on ESG’s financial materiality for investors worldwide.

Kroll is a global financial and risk advisory firm offering services in valuation, investigations, cyber-resilience, regulatory compliance, transaction advisory, restructuring and business services.
With around 6,500 experts across 32 countries, Kroll helps clients build, protect and maximise enterprise value through data, technology and intelligence.

This report analyses how ESG ratings influence corporate bond risk and performance. It finds that higher ESG-rated issuers show stronger financials, lower systematic and idiosyncratic risks, and better credit quality. ESG ratings provide additional insights beyond credit ratings, especially for high-yield and longer-dated investment-grade bonds.

This MSCI report reviews the long-term performance of ESG ratings in global and developed equity markets. It finds that higher-rated companies outperformed peers, driven by stronger earnings growth and dividend yields rather than valuation effects. MSCI ESG indexes also generally outperformed their benchmarks across regions and during crises.

This article analyses institutional investors’ incentives to internalise negative externalities across their portfolios. It focuses on climate change, showing how large asset managers influence fossil fuel companies to reduce emissions, disclose risks, and limit lobbying, reframing shareholder primacy by prioritising portfolio-wide welfare over firm-level profit maximisation.

This report summarises why firms should maximise shareholder welfare rather than market value, noting that investors often have ethical and social preferences beyond profit. It proposes shareholder voting on corporate policy to better align company decisions with investor welfare, particularly where externalities are inseparable from production.

This report benchmarks 76 of the world’s largest asset managers on responsible investment across governance, climate, biodiversity, and social issues. Findings show stagnating progress, weak biodiversity policies, and continued fossil fuel investments, with European managers outperforming peers. Only a few demonstrate comprehensive responsible investment practices.

The three-part Aotearoa New Zealand Climate Standards establish mandatory climate-related disclosures.
NZ CS 1 sets disclosure rules on governance, strategy, risk management, metrics, and targets, including assurance of emissions.
NZ CS 2 provides temporary adoption provisions for phased implementation.
NZ CS 3 outlines principles, general requirements, and materiality for disclosures.

External Reporting Board (XRB) is an independent Crown entity in New Zealand that develops and issues accounting, auditing & assurance, and climate reporting standards. XRB ensures trusted, high-quality, integrated reporting across public, private and not-for-profit sectors to promote transparency, accountability and support informed decision-making.

This guide outlines environmental, social, and just transition considerations for investors in aviation’s fuel shift. It compares biofuels and e-fuels, highlights regulatory and biodiversity risks, and provides engagement questions to assess companies’ transition strategies, ensuring alignment with climate goals while safeguarding communities and long-term financial stability.

Opportunity Green (OG) is a UK-based charity founded in 2021 that harnesses legal, economic and policy expertise to drive climate justice. OG focuses on equity, justice and accountability across overlooked sectors—aviation, shipping, buildings, steel, agriculture—championing decarbonisation, legal innovation and coalition-building for a 1.5 °C-aligned future.

The CEDIM Risk Explorer Germany is a public, web‑based map viewer that enables interactive visualisation of hazard, vulnerability and risk across Germany—covering phenomena such as earthquakes, winter storms and (in Saxony) floods—for spatial risk assessment and expected monetary loss estimation.

GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) is Germany’s national Earth system research centre. It investigates solid‑Earth processes—including geology, geophysics, geodesy and geochemistry—and operates global observatories, satellite missions and analytical infrastructure. GFZ advances understanding of natural hazards, climate impact and resource management to support sustainable solutions.

Center for Disaster Management and Risk Reduction Technology (CEDIM) is an interdisciplinary research centre at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, enhancing disaster resilience. Focusing on natural and human-made hazards—such as earthquakes, droughts, heatwaves and floods—it develops early warning systems, risk mapping and forensic disaster analysis. Ideal for innovators in disaster risk science.

The Water Footprint Assessment Tool is a free online application that enables businesses, governments, investors, NGOs and researchers to calculate and map green, blue and grey water footprints, assess sustainability, efficiency and equitable water use, and identify strategic actions to improve water management.

Water Footprint Implementation supports companies and governments with water accounting, sustainability assessment and water-footprint compensation. A spin-off of Water Footprint Network research, it delivers actionable insights for ESG reporting, water stewardship, water-footprint benchmarking and tailored reduction strategies to enhance resilience, reduce risk and foster sustainable water management.