Experimental Environmental, Social and Governance Dashboard
Released: 2023-03-28
The landscape in which businesses operate is evolving because of an increased awareness of environmental degradation and the importance of diversity and inclusion, changing the expectations for corporate behaviour. Whether considering the transition to a low-carbon economy or a more diverse workforce, shareholders are more than ever looking beyond financial performance when making investment decisions.
Within this context, Statistics Canada developed an experimental dashboard presenting a series of Environmental, social and governance (ESG) indicators that demonstrates the non-financial performance of a selection of industries. In this second release, the dashboard has been expanded with additional indicators (breaches of privacy and employment vacancy rates) and industry sectors (construction, utilities, manufacturing, and transportation and warehousing).
ESG indicators are three non-financial factors that can be used to inform the long-term risk or return of an investment. The rationale is that industries that are adequately managing their ESG risks will be less vulnerable to changes in regulations or societal expectations and will therefore perform better in the long run.
Environmental indicators demonstrate an industry's impact on the environment, either through its consumption of goods and services, its carbon footprint or its transformation of the environment. Social indicators demonstrate businesses' relationships with their employees, consumers and surrounding community, as indicated by measures such as employment composition and job quality. Governance indicators reflect decision-making processes for businesses within an industry and are typically measured by looking at the composition and compensation of boards of directors, among others.
Note to readers
For this pilot phase of the environmental, social and governance (ESG) dashboard, Statistics Canada leveraged existing data sources for a few industries. The goal of this experimental dashboard is to provide a sample of ESG indicators and assess users' interest in the data to determine the future direction of the project. As such, these indicators should not be considered as a complete ESG framework.
Indicators included in the ESG dashboard were selected based on the availability of data, their presence in widely adopted ESG frameworks currently used by businesses and their applicability to many industries. While the indicators selected are relevant to most industries, they may not represent the most material issues for the industries included in the dashboard and, therefore, should not be considered as a comprehensive or definitive list. Material issues are the factors likely to affect the financial condition or operating performance of businesses within a specific industry.
Because of the experimental nature of the dashboard, only a limited selection of industries is currently available. These industries were chosen based on their interest in ESG data and the availability of industry breakdowns of certain datasets used to produce the indicators. Data may therefore be available for industries not currently represented in the dashboard. Data sources are clearly indicated in the dashboard, and users are encouraged to access data for other industries by referring to these data sources.
Products
The Experimental environmental, social and governance dashboard (71-607-X) is now available.
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).
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