INFRAS helped to develop Inrate’s ESG Impact Rating and is still providing the sustainability rating agency’s research team. Its tasks are wide ranging, and besides further developing the rating methodology also include creating other products and establishing methodological and technical foundations.
How sustainable is a company – and what impact do its activities have? Investors seeking to answer these questions will frequently use ESG criteria to analyse a company’s sustainability management. ESG stands for environmental, social and governance. However, this often ignores the impact of products and services.
Inrate's ESG impact methodology, on the other hand, fills the gap between companies’ own ESG information and the environmental and social impact that a company’s products and services create throughout their lifecycle. INFRAS played a key role in developing the methodology from the beginning and was thus also involved in the creation of Inrate in 2001.
INFRAS’s team plays a core role at Inrate
INFRAS has been an integral part of Inrate ever since it was founded and now plays a vital role by forming the research team. The team is responsible for updating and further developing the ESG impact methodology, creating new products, and compiling fundamental studies on topics important to Inrate.
Continually updating and further developing the methodology
The ESG Impact Rating was one of the first ratings ever to evaluate companies’ impact on the environment and society. Its innovative approaches still set it apart from most conventional ESG ratings, including its product and service evaluation (more information about the methodology and innovative approaches used can be found here).
Furthermore, INFRAS is still responsible for ensuring that the quality of the methodology remains consistently high and is continually further developed. One key development in the ESG Impact Rating, for example, was the systematic integration of biodiversity into the rating model for 2023/2024.
ESG Impact Ratings: from large corporations, SMEs and real estate to entire countries
In recent years, INFRAS has been working with and for Inrate to develop a range of ESG Impact Ratings for various asset classes:
- Ratings for listed companies: the ESG Impact Rating was developed for listed companies and evaluates their sustainability impact. It covers more than 10,000 companies, which together account for over 99 percent of the market capitalisation of all listed companies worldwide.
- Ratings for unlisted companies: the Impact Rating can also be applied to unlisted companies (private equity, SMEs). To that end, an approach with a reduced set of indicators and alternative data gathering processes was developed.
- Ratings for countries and subnational units: this rating differs significantly from the methodology used for rating companies. It takes account of the different tasks that governments/administrations face compared with companies.
- Ratings for real estate: the Real Estate Impact Rating applies the principles of the ESG Impact Rating to individual pieces of real estate or even entire real estate funds.
- Ratings for green bonds: besides the impact assessment for issuing entities (companies or administrations), this rating also includes an assessment of the use of funds, i.e. the green activities financed by the bonds.
In addition to these ESG Impact Rating products, INFRAS has also developed other key products:
- CO2 data: Inrate’s climate data includes modelled data for scope 1, 2 and 3 based on an input-output table supplemented with environmental data, as well as the data reported by companies and countries. INFRAS has also developed a methodology for climate alignment.
- SDG impact analysis for companies: this is based on mapping a company’s environmental activities (products and services) against the United Nations’s 17 SDGs. Taking the individual companies’ ESG Impact Ratings into account, this product enables analysis to be conducted of portfolios or funds and how they contribute to specific SDGs.
- Data to meet regulatory obligations: data and modelling solutions have been developed to help clients meet their obligations, especially for EU regulations (SFDR/PAI, Taxonomy, BMR).
More information:
Further information about INFRAS’s work on the ESG Impact Rating:
- What makes up the ESG Impact Rating: a look at three innovative aspects
- Making biodiversity measurable: integration into the ESG Impact Rating
In addition to working for Inrate, INFRAS also conducts research and provides consultation for other partners on issues relating to impact, sustainability data and ESG ratings, as well as other topics in the field of sustainable finance and ESG. A selection of our projects:
Project team
