How to Calculate your ESG Score

[727Sky]

For some reason this reminds me of the Chinese social score some of us have heard about

https://theimpactinvestor.com/calculate-...esg-score/

How to Calculate Your Individual ESG Score
Updated on February 7, 2022

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In business, ESG issues have been on the docket for quite some time. Not only do stakeholders pay attention to the effect a company has on the environment, third parties and even the government is also keeping track.
ESG covers a range of issues, including the overall environmental impact a company or its services imparts in addition to diversity, human rights, and other social issues. Governance plays a role as well. Every company will have an ESG rating which is considered their ESG score.
Investors and other companies use this to help determine partnership, investment, and even takeover decisions.
That being said, you may be wondering about an individual ESG score. People have credit scores that tell lenders and other parties if they can pay their debts. It is similar to a credit score when it comes to an individual ESG score, but instead of rating creditworthiness, it rates a person’s ESG risk.
This article will cover the basics of an individual ESG score, how yours is calculated, and what it will be used for going forward. We will also teach you how to calculate your individual ESG score so that you can work towards improving your rating.
Table of Contents [show]
Do I Have an ESG Score?
You may know all about your credit score, but an individual ESG score is still rather new. Many mainstream financial institutions are creating a new platform that is centered on ESG scores.
In addition to creating this platform, their lending guidelines are also getting an update that includes new rules that will tie your individual ESG score to your ability to secure lending.
Being that it’s still new, there is not too much that is completely known about how it will be used and what regulations will improve or correct your score. In many cases, people are generally unaware that they even have an ESG score unless they happen to come across it in the process of doing something totally unrelated.
For example, consumers who have accounts with Merrill Lynch will be able to view their score, whatever that may be. While this may sound like tales out of China, it is a system that is, in fact, being implement in the US and soon many other nations.
Lenders will use this system to choose who they extend services or credit to. The main reason is that companies, including lenders, are being graded according to the ESG standards themselves.
Their business and prosperity depend directly on their hiring practices, gender diversity, social and environmental impact, and other ESG factors. As they are required to prove their case, they will also need to show that their clients meet the standards they are being graded.
See Related: Best Impact Investing Books to Read
What is the Purpose of an ESG Score for Individuals?

A few different things will determine your personal ESG score, many of which can be discovered via your regular credit report and other public records. Your purchase history and also your sales history will have a dramatic effect on your ESG rating as a person.
The charities that you support will also increase or even decrease your ESG score. The platform will track your personal impact in the environment around you through various means, which will also be used to calculate your individual ESG score.
The purpose behind each person being assigned an individual ESG score is to help reward actions that will help move the world towards sustainability. While there are not currently any downsides to having an ESG score, regardless of how high or how low, there will come a time where too low of a score can result in denials for loans or services similar to the way credit scores currently function.
For now, ESG scores for individuals are used as a tracking tool for companies to monitor behavior. For those who have already started using ESG scores as part of their business model, some people with good scores may notice lucrative offers, easier loan terms, and even targeted packages designed to reward green or sustainable behaviors.
See Related: History of Impact Investing
What is My ESG Score?

Now that you know a little more about the basics and principles behind an individual ESG score, you may be wondering where to find your rating.
There are a few different places you can check to find your score. If you hold an account at a major financial firm such as Merrill Lynch, your personal ESG score will be listed on your account with your other personal details. You can also check any of the main ESG monitoring companies’ websites.
Usually, you will need to create an account or contact them directly to get information regarding your personal score.
If you are not an investor or don’t have a big financial account, it can be difficult to get your score from traditional places.
However, you can calculate your score to get a better idea of how companies view you in sustainability.
See Related: Best Impact Investing Apps
Quick Tutorial On How to Calculate My Personal ESG Score
For companies, any score between 50 and 70 is considered to be average. It is neither good nor bad but rather neutral within that particular industry.
A score over 70 is a good thing which means the company makes better ESG supportive decisions and has an ESG stable way of doing business.
For individuals, the scoring is a bit different but follows the same general set of rules. If you are wondering how do I find my personal ESG score, our easy-to-understand tutorial will help.
See Related: How to Invest in Wind Energy
What You Need To Determine Your Individual ESG Score
Finding and calculating your personal ESG score will mainly depend on your metrics’ materiality. In addition to your unique factors, you will also need to identify your personal ESG goals to determine a score.
You can perform audits of your actions to help spot risks and then implement measures to correct aspects of your increasing score, or rather lowering your personal ESG score.
ESG ratings are based on the measure of behaviors, investments, habits, and other actions gathered from a range of public sources.
Your score may be adjusted depending on a range of factors, including the company’s policies from which your score is delivered.
As such, there will be some variation between scores depending on where yours is the source in comparison with your own manual calculations.
Some things you may need to calculate your personal score are:

• A list of your investments.
  
• A general calculation of how many miles you travel via car and public transport.
  
• The amount of energy you use each month (electricity, gas, etc.).
  
• Your cryptocurrency profile.
  
• Your food consumption numbers.
  
• Your organic and environmental effort profile.
  
• And other metrics.
  

See Related: What is the theory of Change
Step 1 On How to Calculate ESG Score
You will start by amassing the data. Depending on how comprehensive you want your evaluation to be, the more data you will need. Calculate the amount of energy you use personally and as a family. You will also need to calculate the amount of waste you produce personally.
Look at your purchases and tabulate the percentage of your eco-friendly purchases and those that are not.
You will also need to look at your investments and separate them into ESG friendly ones and those that are not. Social ethics also play a role in your overall score.
Consider how your actions, both online and in-person, help support your community and those around you. Also, you will need to calculate how your actions harm those around you.
The point of these calculations is to understand how much you affect the environment and people around you, both positively and negatively.
See Related: What are Social Returns on Investment
Step 2 On How to Calculate ESG Score
You can then answer several questions that further relate to your life, habits, and consumption that will help create a complete picture of your interaction with the world around you.
These survey questions can be downloaded online from any ESG reporting agency, or you can take an online assessment that will help guide you through the appropriate questions.
See Related: Examples of Collective Model Impact
Step 3 On How to Calculate ESG Score
Once the calculations and questions are completed, the answers will need to be segmented. This will separate your replies and consumption into sections that can then be measured and assigned an ESG value.
The criteria used to segment the information will vary slightly from one reporting agency to the next. Still, they will cover personal carbon emissions, waste production, energy usage, environmental impact, social impact, ethics insights, and sustainability efforts, among other things.
See Related: Investing in Carbon Credits: Do They Leave an Impact?
Step 4 On How to Calculate ESG Score
After segmenting each section, a value will then be assigned to each. Some areas have a heavier weight than others. For example, if you invest in green programs and also avoid eating meat, it will have a heavier weight than your use of electricity in your home daily.
Every ESG rating agency has its own predefined scoring systems that assign weights and measures to each segment. As a result, the final, personal ESG score may vary slightly from agency to agency and agencies to your own calculations.
Controversies, actual reporting, truth in reporting, and exact tabulations will also play a role in your final score.
Commercial companies also have more access to public data than you may have on your own, which will further affect the actual score you are awarded.
See Related: Environmental Justice Jobs
A Closer Look At The Metrics

ESG scores take a lot of information into account when it comes to commercial and industrial entities. On a personal level, just as much information is used to create a picture of who you are and how your personal actions influence the world around you.
Buying a gun, alcohol, or even clothing will all affect your overall ESG score. Not only will your purchases matter, but who you purchase from and how they do business.
Your political affiliations also factor into your personal ESG score. Aside from the politics in governance, the party you support and even the person you vote for will make your score go up or down based on that person’s actions, policies, and voting habits.
The type of car you drive, how often, and even how many people are in the car when you drive will also come into play when deciding your score.
Unlike credit scores with a clear method of tabulation, cause, and effect, ESG scores depend on a wide variety of factors that most people have yet to consider. Depending on where you live, even calculating a personal ESG score can mean giving up your rights to basic privacy.

[Michigan Swamp Buck]

It's a fairly arbitrary system that has few impartial standards, primarily a list of progressive left virtue signal issues made into a scoring system.

It's too bad a version that included conservative right values wouldn't stand a chance and would be shot down by the woke before it was even published in some form. In such a case, as is the left's MO, the reasoning they would use against a conservative scoring system would be applicable to their woke one and none of them would notice that or even understand it.

On the other hand, a conservative right social credit scoring system could help conservative causes by uniting and supporting conservative individuals, companies and organizations. I'd support that if they want to draw a line that deep.

[FlyingClayDisk]

For some reason this reminds me of the Chinese social score some of us have heard about
...

Well, it should, because this is exactly what it is...except manifesting itself in the corporate world and then spreading outward (like a virus) from there!  No "kind of" about it!

I have to go through ESG training (i.e. indoctrination) twice every calendar year now, and we have an elaborate ESG program!  This, because of who the company is, and how they are placed in the international marketplace.

It's a huge psyop being perpetuated on every aspect of society.  Never did I think I would ever see such a thing in my lifetime as we are seeing now with all these social and environmental initiatives creeping into virtually every element of people's lives.

I'd love to say it's just a "fad", but at the moment it's not.

They're winning!  (IF we let them)

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

For some reason this reminds me of the Chinese social score some of us have heard about
...

Well, it should, because this is exactly what it is...except manifesting itself in the corporate world and then spreading outward (like a virus) from there!  No "kind of" about it!

I have to go through ESG training (i.e. indoctrination) twice every calendar year now, and we have an elaborate ESG program!  This, because of who the company is, and how they are placed in the international marketplace.

It's a huge psyop being perpetuated on every aspect of society.  Never did I think I would ever see such a thing in my lifetime as we are seeing now with all these social and environmental initiatives creeping into virtually every element of people's lives.

I'd love to say it's just a "fad", but at the moment it's not.

They're winning!  (IF we let them)

The root of all evil is money. The last few years have proved that they have won, hands down.

If people will allow themselves, and their children, to be coerced into allowing the system to inject them with some novel drug, for a disease they admit they don't know much about, then it is proven that some people will do anything for money.

I believe for me, it started with the personality testing. In the beginning, I was just as naive, and gullible as the next person. I thought electronics was the neatest thing since sliced bread, and I thought all the neat things you could do with its was so cool.

Now we are at the point where some businesses, including hospitals, tag their employees to see how much time it takes them to complete a task or to respond to a call bell.

We are toast.

[Ninurta]

I reckon being a Luddite has it's advantages. For example, I have nary a clue as to what an "ESG" even is, much less why I would want to waste any time scoring one.

It does sound suspiciously like a "social credit" score, where someone else just arbitrarily assigns a number to you entirely devoid of objective measurements, and that would be a system ripe for abuse. One where they can just drop a favorable number on folks they like, and an unfavorable one on folks they don't like, without the hassle of having to be fair, impartial, or objective.

The scoring methods as described are entirely arbitrary. If one entity can calculate a score that is different from the score calculated by another, then there are really NO objective measurements involved in calculating the scoring - they are all subjective, mutable, subject to the ebb and flow of feelz.

so I will just opt out of using their system. If I can opt out of financial credit scores (which  are less arbitrary, calculated from hard numbers) and still get by, then I can opt out of this kinds of bullshit, too. Oh, I'm sure someone somewhere still keeps a credit score on me, but the fact is I don't care if they do or what it is, because I don't partake of their lending systems. If I don't engage in their services, why would I care how they score me for use of those services?

I'm not a Leftist at all, so why would I care whether they score me as a "good little commie" or a "bad little commie"?

With that said, there are an awful lot of concupiscent folks in this world who WILL worry about their arbitrary score, because they will need it to amass riches and keep up with the Joneses. Those folks are leaving themselves wide open to being directed and controlled by others, and those "others" appear to have come up with the perfect control system to direct the herd. start with the financial Masters, then expand the perimeter to include companies and make them dependent on those financial Masters, and then extend the perimeter to everyone else who have to buy from the controlled companies.

Your politics, and your freedom itself, mean nothing if they can grab you by the dollars.

As always, the love of money is the root of all evil, and it is the love of money that will allow them to gain full operational control of any and all individuals infected with that particular love bug. The solution would seem to be living within your own means, and increasing those means locally, outside of the system they are constructing, just as it is with the financial credit scoring system. In the end, in both systems, it's all about the Benjamins, and just how hard one is willing to charge after them. If it's the money they use to control you, then barter is a better alternative for folks who want to stay free.



.

[EndtheMadnessNow]

ESG - Environmental, Social, and corporate Governance.

It's just a fad
It's just a fad
It's just a fad

Sigh...


Until it's not and morph's into a CCP octopus version of total control as in a Earth System Grid [ESG] of governance. It smells & quacks of WEF technocrat parasites. Hoping for a new legion of techno-crypto hacker youngsters that takes it all down. Hack the planet.

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
— T. S. Eliot, "The Hollow Men", 1925.

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

@Ninurta

@EndtheMadnessNow

I agree with both of you. The issue here is that this level of control started long before computers. Computers just complete the plan. They make it easier to monitor, control, and punish you.

We allowed ourselves to be identified, and valued by how much wealth we possessed. We sold our souls to the devil because we didn't know any better. We were so expertly brainwashed by outside influences, through the education system, TV, movies, and advertisements, that many are clueless to what is right or wrong any more.

There is only one way out of this slave pit. Less than 0.001% will take it. The best we can hope for is a peaceful death, because we are vastly out numbered.

Look at what happened the last few years. The only reason I still have a job is because there are very few people that do my job, so I would be hard to replace. I had two co-workers that stood with me, and a governor that has his eye on the Presidency. But I expected to be fired for being non-compliant, and things would have been ten times harder than they are now.

I know how hard it is to walk away from the money. It would not not have been the 1st time I have done it. Back in 1990 I walk away from a job that paid me over $200,000.00 a year with full benefits, including transportation. Everyone thought I had lost my mind. My soul could not be bought then, and it cannot be bought now.

In a society that revolves around self, material things, and ego, the 99.999% just will not be able to break free.

[ABNARTY]

ESG huh?

Sounds like a woke-o-meter to me. 

Like a virtue-signaling fantasy football.

Dragons and Dungeons character strength rating. I'm a level 28 ESG Wizard. 

Back in the day they had groups or societies that did charitable deeds for the community. They did them mostly anonymously. Bragging about your good deeds was seen as sinful or prideful. Your reward was supposed to be the betterment of your fellow human. That's it. You have been blessed with good fortune now it's time to spread that around a little bit. Why? That's what the good book says to do. It's a proven winner for the community. 

Now it seems, good deeds are not the purpose at all. It's all about the communities perception of you. How amazing you are regardless if anyone gets helped or not. 

Now that self-absorption is being taken advantage of. It's pseudo-quantification is evidence of it's falsehood because how does one actually meter good will? You can't, but here we are. It's like the power of a good selfie on steroids. Get with the program and you will be rewarded. Never mind how empty it really is. You have proven weak when it comes to external manipulation and we will exploit that. The ESG garbage is just window dressing.    

*Wow... I sound depressing 

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

I hate those videos where people exploit the needy, by splashing all over the internet, their supposed kind deeds.

Looking to profit, and get their recognition when still living on this plane.

[Ninurta]

ESG - Environmental, Social, and corporate Governance.

It's just a fad
It's just a fad
It's just a fad

Well crap - if that's what it means, I fail before I even get out the gate! I'm not very social at all, and I don' need no stinkin' "Corporate Governance" - we already have government governance, and it ain't workin' worth a shit... I just can't see draping another layer of bullshit over the existing one!

They're eventually gonna have to kill me.

.

[Ninurta]

In a society that revolves around self, material things, and ego, the 99.999% just will not be able to break free.

Just wait for the encore - that will be where they weaponize the 99.999% against the 0.001% to either try to force them into compliance or run them to ground and kill them. You can already see the signs of that move all around us.

.

[Ninurta]

ESG huh?

Sounds like a woke-o-meter to me. 

Like a virtue-signaling fantasy football.

Dragons and Dungeons character strength rating. I'm a level 28 ESG Wizard. 

Back in the day they had groups or societies that did charitable deeds for the community. They did them mostly anonymously. Bragging about your good deeds was seen as sinful or prideful. Your reward was supposed to be the betterment of your fellow human. That's it. You have been blessed with good fortune now it's time to spread that around a little bit. Why? That's what the good book says to do. It's a proven winner for the community. 

Now it seems, good deeds are not the purpose at all. It's all about the communities perception of you. How amazing you are regardless if anyone gets helped or not. 

Now that self-absorption is being taken advantage of. It's pseudo-quantification is evidence of it's falsehood because how does one actually meter good will? You can't, but here we are. It's like the power of a good selfie on steroids. Get with the program and you will be rewarded. Never mind how empty it really is. You have proven weak when it comes to external manipulation and we will exploit that. The ESG garbage is just window dressing.    

*Wow... I sound depressing 

Thankfully, I am immune.

I don't do "kindness".

That would be SOOO 20th Century!

.

[FlyingClayDisk]

ESG huh?

Sounds like a woke-o-meter to me. 

Like a virtue-signaling fantasy football.

Dragons and Dungeons character strength rating. I'm a level 28 ESG Wizard. 

Back in the day they had groups or societies that did charitable deeds for the community. They did them mostly anonymously. Bragging about your good deeds was seen as sinful or prideful. Your reward was supposed to be the betterment of your fellow human. That's it. You have been blessed with good fortune now it's time to spread that around a little bit. Why? That's what the good book says to do. It's a proven winner for the community. 

Now it seems, good deeds are not the purpose at all. It's all about the communities perception of you. How amazing you are regardless if anyone gets helped or not. 

Now that self-absorption is being taken advantage of. It's pseudo-quantification is evidence of it's falsehood because how does one actually meter good will? You can't, but here we are. It's like the power of a good selfie on steroids. Get with the program and you will be rewarded. Never mind how empty it really is. You have proven weak when it comes to external manipulation and we will exploit that. The ESG garbage is just window dressing.    

*Wow... I sound depressing 

I think some may not be fully understanding what ESG is.

First of all, ESG isn't really an individual thing, it's a corporate and governmental thing.  It's not a score of a person, but rather a score of a group of people, or a corporation, and even a government.  Why organizations have signed up with this I have no idea, but they have.  Marketing, I'm sure.  In any case, a 'person' doesn't have an ESG score.  However, a person can have a defacto ESG score by virtue of the group(s) they affiliate with.  It's kind of like 'guilt by association'.

In 1st world countries, ESG is a 'thing' because governments are restricting government contracts based on ESG scores.  Here in the US there is another score in play also, and it is called "EDI" (Equity, Diversity and Inclusion).  EDI is a subset of ESG.  At the local and municipal levels, most will hear about EDI programs, and at the national and international level people will hear about ESG programs and initiatives.

Here's an example:  About a year ago, our so-called 'president' signed up for a new initiative called the "Justice 40" initiative.  What this initiative says is that 40% of all federal infrastructure funding dollars are being made available to minority contractors (and organizations).  The way the initiatives are worded are basically a threat, and when read carefully they basically force federal contracts to "flip" or swap the traditional Prime vs. Subcontractor roles.  In other words, have the big prime contractors be subcontractors, and their historically minority (required by law) subcontractors now be prime.  Yours truly is right in the middle of one of these arrangements as he writes this.  The whole initiative is laughable because it changes nothing, BUT it gives the "appearance" of making all sorts of changes.  Oh, and then a whole bunch of people get to talk a bunch of smack about how they're in charge when they're really in charge of nothing.

It's all a F'ing JOKE!

[Snarl]

Sounds like a woke-o-meter to me. 

ESG isn't really an individual thing, it's a corporate and governmental thing.

The RAND Corporation has a database with individual's scorings.  They've got at least 200 million individual's records (from America).

[ABNARTY]

ESG huh?

Sounds like a woke-o-meter to me. 

Like a virtue-signaling fantasy football.

Dragons and Dungeons character strength rating. I'm a level 28 ESG Wizard. 

Back in the day they had groups or societies that did charitable deeds for the community. They did them mostly anonymously. Bragging about your good deeds was seen as sinful or prideful. Your reward was supposed to be the betterment of your fellow human. That's it. You have been blessed with good fortune now it's time to spread that around a little bit. Why? That's what the good book says to do. It's a proven winner for the community. 

Now it seems, good deeds are not the purpose at all. It's all about the communities perception of you. How amazing you are regardless if anyone gets helped or not. 

Now that self-absorption is being taken advantage of. It's pseudo-quantification is evidence of it's falsehood because how does one actually meter good will? You can't, but here we are. It's like the power of a good selfie on steroids. Get with the program and you will be rewarded. Never mind how empty it really is. You have proven weak when it comes to external manipulation and we will exploit that. The ESG garbage is just window dressing.    

*Wow... I sound depressing 

I think some may not be fully understanding what ESG is.

First of all, ESG isn't really an individual thing, it's a corporate and governmental thing.  It's not a score of a person, but rather a score of a group of people, or a corporation, and even a government.  Why organizations have signed up with this I have no idea, but they have.  Marketing, I'm sure.  In any case, a 'person' doesn't have an ESG score.  However, a person can have a defacto ESG score by virtue of the group(s) they affiliate with.  It's kind of like 'guilt by association'.

In 1st world countries, ESG is a 'thing' because governments are restricting government contracts based on ESG scores.  Here in the US there is another score in play also, and it is called "EDI" (Equity, Diversity and Inclusion).  EDI is a subset of ESG.  At the local and municipal levels, most will hear about EDI programs, and at the national and international level people will hear about ESG programs and initiatives.

Here's an example:  About a year ago, our so-called 'president' signed up for a new initiative called the "Justice 40" initiative.  What this initiative says is that 40% of all federal infrastructure funding dollars are being made available to minority contractors (and organizations).  The way the initiatives are worded are basically a threat, and when read carefully they basically force federal contracts to "flip" or swap the traditional Prime vs. Subcontractor roles.  In other words, have the big prime contractors be subcontractors, and their historically minority (required by law) subcontractors now be prime.  Yours truly is right in the middle of one of these arrangements as he writes this.  The whole initiative is laughable because it changes nothing, BUT it gives the "appearance" of making all sorts of changes.  Oh, and then a whole bunch of people get to talk a bunch of smack about how they're in charge when they're really in charge of nothing.

It's all a F'ing JOKE!

Back up. I got it. It's for companies. 

There was some attempt at humor in my response. Maybe that fell flat. My apologies.