The S&P Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) Score Guide

Hanna Carr

Associate Director

Table of Contents

• Dow Jones Best-in-Class Index eligibility
• CSA participation
• Getting to grips with your score
• Improving Your CSA Score
• Dos and Don’ts after receiving your CSA score
• Frequently asked questions

Share this article

• Share via Linkedin
• Share via Facebook
• Share via X
• Share via Email

The S&P Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) is an annual evaluation conducted by S&P Global that measures a company’s performance across environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria, measuring their management of material ESG risks, opportunities, and impacts. The resulting CSA score – expressed as a numeric score between 0 and 100 – reflects the company’s level of ESG maturity.

The assessment covers over 100 questions and dozens of criteria, from climate strategy and resource efficiency to labour practices, supply chain management, and corporate governance. Each criterion is weighted based on its financial materiality to the specific industry, meaning companies in different sectors are assessed differently

Results of the assessment are publicly available on S&P’s website, distributed to subscribers via S&P’s Capital IQ Pro platform, and are featured on Bloomberg’s ESG dashboard.  Today, S&P’s CSA scores and ESG scores are used by investors, analysts, and sustainability teams worldwide as a benchmark for ESG performance. They are also used as criteria for inclusion in the Dow Jones Best-in-Class index series (formerly Dow Jones Sustainability Index family, “DJSI”) and the S&P Sustainability Yearbook, both external signals of competitive ESG performance.  In fact, many in the industry still refer to the questionnaire itself as the DJSI, partly the result of the questionnaire having changed hands from RobecoSAM to S&P, while the index has remained the most relevant use of results.

Dow Jones Best-In-Class Index eligibility

Publicly listed companies can confirm their invitation status and eligibility for various indexes on the S&P website. Eligibility is based on company size within a specific geographic market. Please see the graphic below which presents the invited universe for each Dow Jones Best-in-Class regional index. The most recent constituent lists are available on the S&P website, and rebalancing occurs each April (beginning in 2026). Companies not covered by the research universe can also solicit the CSA as a Service and get a Public, Confidential or Provisional (based on hypothetical data) CSA and ESG Score.

S&P CSA vs Dow Jones Index: Understanding the connection

The Dow Jones Best-in-Class Index (formerly “DJSI”) and the S&P CSA are closely linked but serve different purposes. The CSA is the questionnaire companies complete each year. The DJSI is one outcome of the assessment – a financial index leveraging CSA scores that identifies ESG leaders in each sector.

To be considered for the Dow Jones index rebalancing, companies must submit their CSA response by the December 31^st deadline. S&P then submits the final scores to Dow Jones based on the CSA results, and the updated index composition – including which companies are added or removed – is announced in April.

Not all companies with strong CSA scores will be included in the Dow Jones Best-in-Class index. Inclusion is competitive and sector-specific: only the top-performing companies within each industry make the cut. The number of eligible spots per sector varies based on index methodology and minimum score thresholds. Therefore, the score cutoff may vary widely between industries and across regional indexes. Companies targeting index inclusion should focus not just on improving their absolute score, but on understanding the competitive landscape within their specific industry classification. It is common for a company to target inclusion in their regional index, such as the North American Dow Jones Best-in-Class Index, but not the World Index, due to the competitiveness of the World Index. Conversely, some regional or country-level indexes, such as the Emerging Markets Index, tend to have higher score cutoffs than the World Index due to the wide adoption of the CSA and robust reporting practices in those regions.

CSA participation

Beginning in February, companies are asked to select a 2-month participation window, spanning from April through January.

If looking to be eligible for the Sustainability Yearbook, companies should be sure to select a participation window with a submission date no later than October 16^th. If looking to be eligible for Dow Jones Best-in-Class index inclusion, select a window with a submission date no later than December 31st. It is generally easy to request an extension through the CSA portal directly.

Options for participation

All companies who are part of S&P’s research universe will receive an S&P ESG Score, available publicly at the S&P website, which is based only on publicly available information. Companies do not need to directly participate in the CSA questionnaire to be eligible for Index inclusion or Yearbook membership.

However, it is highly recommended that companies participate actively in the questionnaire because:

1. Actively participating companies can submit detailed references and commentary to S&P analysts to ensure that the most relevant information is considered. S&P performs a high-level review of public reporting to score companies that do not actively participate, but S&P often misses certain details, scores companies inconsistently, or makes mistakes in their review, as they are scoring a high volume of companies and are ultimately not beholden to the requests of corporate issuers. They may not be able to find certain company policies outside of a few core documents (ESG Report, 10-K, Code of Conduct, for example).
2. Several CSA questions permit the submission of nonpublic data or content. Thus, only companies who directly participate in the CSA are able to submit nonpublic information, as S&P’s review of companies is only based on public information. This enables companies to submit potentially sensitive information and receive credit for it without having to share it publicly.

Companies may actively participate in the CSA in one of two ways: Self-Paced and Review & Add.

• Self-Paced enables companies to fill out the entire questionnaire, although they can prefill the questions with their prior year’s responses. This option can provide the most robust opportunity for companies to provide information about their programs and ensures that S&P will review all the most relevant sources in conjunction with each question.
• Review & Add provides companies with an initial prefilled response based on S&P’s review of the company’s publicly available information. It can help to reduce the time burden on companies filling out the questionnaire, but it can be difficult to pinpoint specific references being used by S&P and gives companies less control over the sources being used to complete their response. If selecting this option, we recommend that companies leave time to review S&P’s prefill and provide additional references. Companies should not expect to see an initial scorecard from S&P, only a semi-prefilled questionnaire.

Navigating the S&P CSA portal

The S&P CSA portal – accessed at spglobal.com – is the primary interface for submitting your CSA assessment, reviewing analyst revisions, and benchmarking your performance against industry peers. Understanding how to navigate the portal effectively is an important part of getting the most from your CSA score once it is released.

Within the portal, key areas to focus on under the “Frameworks” tab include:

• Response – Once you confirm your participation status on the “Confirmation” tab, toggle to “Questionnaires.” This is where you submit your responses and review analyst revisions. Questions with a flag icon in prior year’s submissions have been revised by an S&P analyst. Toggle between your submitted answer and the revised version to understand where scoring expectations differ from your submission. After receiving your score, you can submit up to three formal inquiries to S&P via the portal. Use these strategically, focusing on high-weighted questions where you believe there may be a scoring error or missed evidence. If S&P believes that at least one of your inquiries identifies a potential oversight by S&P, you will be able to submit reassessment requests for as many questions as you would like. You can also view and edit your full list of attached and linked documents under “Documents.”
• Benchmarking – The CSA assessment portal allows you to compare your score against peer companies. Be mindful that benchmarking views may include scores from the prior year when not all companies have received their current-year scores yet. Untick “Include scores from previous assessment” to ensure a like-for-like comparison. Under “Index Membership,” eligible companies can see details about the Index including score cutoffs and leading companies in their industry. “Reports” includes helpful communications from S&P, such as the ESG Scores Report.

Getting to grips with your CSA score

Considered to be the broadest and most in-depth ESG rating product on the market, S&P’s questionnaire covers all facets of ESG, from cybersecurity to product stewardship to customer satisfaction and everything in between.

CSA questionnaire structure

The questionnaire will open on the selected participation date, at which time you can choose to auto-populate the questionnaire with any content submitted in prior years. You will also need to select a data privacy option. Most companies choose NOT to share their data points and only share public information.

The questionnaire is structured by Dimensions, Criteria, and Questions.

Questionnaire example

• Dimension: Governance & Economic
• Criteria: Business Ethics
• Question: Codes of Conduct

The bulk of the questionnaire is the same across all companies, but a company’s industry will also determine the inclusion or exclusion of several questions, based on relevance. For example, all respondents to the CSA questionnaire will be asked core questions on Labor Practices, but an Automobile company will be asked questions regarding Warranty Provisions and Fuel Efficiency, while a Pharmaceutical company will be asked questions around Access to Healthcare and Ethical Marketing Practices.

The structure of each question can vary drastically depending on the type of information requested. You will likely need to source information from across your organization to address the questions, and it is important to ensure that the information referenced directly addresses the question being asked.

Anthesis experts can support your response process by organizing data collection and filling out the questionnaire with the most relevant information from your public information and any supplementally collected data or documentation.

Questions may be scored on any combination of the following factors:

• Provision of evidence for requested information, with a preference for publicly available evidence
• Coverage of measures implemented or data reported
• Trend of key indicators over last 3-4 years
• Performance of key indicators in comparison to expected threshold
• Awareness of internal and external issues and measures taken
• Third-party verification of data or processes

In a questionnaire of over 100 questions and thousands of datapoints, it can be challenging to determine which gaps are most impactful for improving your company’s score. Anthesis experts can review your questionnaire for opportunities to improve your response and program to meet S&P CSA criteria.

How is the S&P CSA score calculated?

The S&P CSA scoring process is based on responses to the annual S&P CSA questionnaire, which companies complete each year within their assigned submission window. S&P analysts then review all submitted responses and supporting evidence, making revisions where the submitted content does not meet the required standard.

Scores are calculated on a question-by-question basis, with each question contributing to a criterion score, which in turn feeds into a weighted dimension score. The final CSA score is a weighted average across all applicable dimensions for that industry. Weightings reflect the financial materiality of each topic to the sector in question – so a question around water stewardship may carry significantly more weight for a food and beverage company than for a financial services firm.

CSA vs. ESG scores

S&P shares two different score results for the CSA: a CSA Score and an ESG Score.

• The CSA Score reflects a company’s raw score on the CSA, based directly on which CSA criteria the company addresses in its reporting.
• The ESG Score is predicated on the CSA Score but includes a small amount of score modeling to account for discrepancies in scores between companies who actively respond to the CSA and those who do not.

This allows end users of S&P data to compare “apples to apples” when comparing a company who actively participates in the CSA versus one that does not.

A company that actively participates in the CSA and provides nonpublic information regarding gender pay data, for example, will have a higher CSA Score than a company only scored based on public information that does not report anything on gender pay. However, these companies may have the same ESG Score. To model the ESG score, S&P makes a generalised estimate of a company’s ESG performance based on factors such as company size, industry, and geographic location. Both ESG Scores and CSA Scores are publicly available, but only CSA Scores determine Dow Jones index inclusion and Sustainability Yearbook composition.

Changes to the 2026 S&P CSA questionnaire

Updates for the 2026 CSA are relatively minor compared to prior years. The most significant update to this year’s questionnaire is the addition of content pertaining to Responsible Artificial Intelligence, which many companies are just beginning to grapple with from a social responsibility lens.

Key 2026 Updates

• Responsible AI: Elevated from a “future topic” to a formal criterion. All industries must now publicly disclose details regarding a Responsible AI Policy and Responsible AI Programs and demonstrate active programs for ethical AI management.
• Climate Transition Plans: A new, mandatory public question for all industries. Companies must disclose Paris-aligned strategies, including specific CAPEX/OPEX investments and “Just Transition” social assessments.
• Transparency: A few select questions have been “upgraded” to require public evidence.

For detailed industry-specific impacts, see the full analysis: 2026 Changes to S&P Corporate Sustainability Assessment.

Understanding & improving your score

We recommend taking the following steps to interpret and learn from your CSA results, helping you to improve your score in future years:

1. Review Analyst Revisions: S&P provides revised versions of your submitted responses, representing the accepted content that was used for scoring. Reviewing the revised content against your submitted evidence and the additional information provided can help you identify both areas for future improvement and possible oversights by S&P that require direct inquiry.
2. Conduct a Gap Analysis: Take stock of where you lost points in your score. Review the questions where you did not score as well as expected, as well as new questions and those that have been changed significantly year-over-year. These questions pose opportunities to improve your disclosure and programs to meet more stringent scoring criteria.
3. Submit Direct Inquiries: After receiving your score, you can submit a form through the CSA portal with three inquiries about your score. We recommend doing this after an initial high-level gap assessment and suggest that these three questions focus on opportunities to recoup lost points, rather than general requests for more information. If S&P determines that any of these inquiries may reflect an oversight in scoring, S&P will open a reassessment form for you to request that S&P take a second look at all questions you flag for review. If S&P concurs with your request, an analyst may revise the score.
4. Identify Key Datapoints & Keywords: One of the best ways to improve your S&P CSA score is by targeting specific datapoints and keywords for inclusion in your annual sustainability reporting, as well as ensuring that all relevant policies are publicly available. If specific datapoints are not tracked yet, connect with the relevant content owner within your organization to discuss if and how that KPI might be measured moving forward.
5. Address Deeper Gaps: For deeper gaps that cannot be closed with expanded disclosure alone, consider your organization’s strategic planning. For example, if your organization is performing a double materiality assessment in the next year, look for opportunities to align outputs with requested information in the relevant S&P question. If developing a new commitment, review the relevant S&P criteria against it as one way to evaluate the strength of the policy.
6. Get Support: Often, it is advantageous to have a third party review your assessment and identify improvement opportunities. Through supporting several organizations with disclosures such as the CSA, Anthesis has developed expertise to help you understand and improve your score.

Dos and Don’ts after receiving your CSA score

Do: Review analyst revisions to understand S&P expectations

In the CSA portal, on the Assessments tab, look for all questions with a black flag next to the question name; this represents a revision made by an S&P analyst. Opening up the question will allow you to toggle between your submitted answer and the revised version, which represents the accepted content used for scoring. It is normal for many questions to have revisions and it can be a powerful tool in understanding how to improve your CSA score for future years.

Review the revised content against your submitted evidence and the details provided in the “Additional information and question guidance” panel. The revision may represent an opportunity to improve disclosure next year, but in certain circumstances, it could represent an oversight by S&P that requires a direct inquiry. Some questions (Emerging Risks, for example) are often heavily revised; focus on the low hanging fruit that can be directly improved for future years.

S&P criteria reflect a very high level of ESG maturity and therefore can be leveraged to raise the bar on your organization’s policies, programs, and KPI tracking.

Do: Strategise score improvement opportunities for next year

While the CSA process is still fresh in your memory, taking stock of where you lost points in your prior year’s score by conducting a gap analysis can be a powerful mechanism for strategizing future improvement opportunities. Review the questions where you did not score as well as expected, as well as new questions and those that have been changed significantly year-over-year. These questions pose opportunities to improve your disclosure and programs to meet more stringent scoring criteria.

One of the best ways to improve your S&P CSA score is by targeting specific datapoints and keywords for inclusion in your annual ESG reporting, as well as ensuring that all relevant policies are publicly available. Given the increase in oversight and auditing of ESG datapoints, starting the process of deciding which new content to include in your next reporting cycle early can help ensure you will be able to seek the necessary approvals to disclose content. If specific datapoints are not tracked yet, connect with the relevant content owner within your organization to discuss if and how that KPI might be tracked moving forward.

In light of new pressures such as mandatory reporting, strategic ESG planning is becoming business-critical.

For deeper gaps that cannot be closed with expanded disclosure alone, consider your organization’s strategic ESG planning. For example, if your organization is performing a double materiality assessment in the next year, look for opportunities to align outputs with requested information in the relevant S&P question. If developing a new commitment, review the relevant S&P criteria against it as one way to evaluate the strength of the policy.

Do: Submit inquiries to S&P

After receiving your score, you can email [email protected] with three inquiries about your score.

We recommend doing this after an initial gap assessment and suggest that these three questions focus on opportunities to recoup lost points rather than general requests for more information. A consultant can help answer questions about your score, but only S&P can adjust your score directly.

Ideally, inquiries should:

• Focus on highly weighted or highly material questions to your business
• Represent a potential mistake or oversight by S&P which could be rectified
• Be specific and pointed, and make a clear argument as to why you should receive points based on the specific question guidance, data requirements, and evidence provided

Do: Reach out for support

Often, it is advantageous to have a third party review your assessment and identify improvement opportunities. Through supporting several organizations with disclosures such as the CSA, Anthesis has developed the expertise to help you understand and improve your score. Also consider whether S&P’s benchmarking tools may be useful in further evaluating your performance.

Don’t: Compare peer performance before the following calendar year

We recommend waiting until after December 31st, when the majority of companies’ scores are available, to publish scores and assess relative performance against peer companies. For added peace of mind until more scores are released, consider unticking the box that says “Include scores from previous assessment” on the Benchmarking tab of the CSA portal to ensure that all analysed scores are from the present reporting year.

FAQ

S&P ESG rating vs CSA score: What’s the difference?

The CSA score is the raw output of the Corporate Sustainability Assessment questionnaire. It reflects your company’s direct responses and submitted evidence, scored against S&P’s predefined criteria and weighted for your industry. It is the score that sits behind your percentile ranking in the CSA portal.

The S&P Global ESG Score is built on the CSA score but incorporates a degree of modelling. This modelling is designed to enable like-for-like comparisons between companies that actively participate in the CSA and those that do not. A company that actively submits non-public evidence on, say, gender pay equity, will have a higher CSA score than a non-participating peer that reports nothing on the topic – but their S&P ESG scores may be similar, because the modelling fills the gap.

How does the Dow Jones Best-in-Class Index (formerly DJSI) use CSA scores?

The Dow Jones Best-In-Class index component selection process is not separate from the CSA – it is built entirely on it. Your S&P Global CSA Score, derived from your CSA response, is the sole basis for index eligibility and selection. There is no additional questionnaire or separate submission process for the index. Companies that submit their CSA response by the December 31^st deadline will have their submitted questionnaire and resulting CSA score utilised for index selection. Companies that do not submit by December 31^st will have a score submitted on their behalf based on public information only.   

Selection is competitive and industry-specific. For the DJBIC World – the flagship global index – only the top 10% of companies within each of S&P’s  industry classifications are included. Regional indices (DJBIC Europe, DJBIC North America, DJBIC Asia Pacific, etc.) apply a top 20% threshold, and country indices use top 30%. Importantly, there is no roll-up between indices: inclusion in a regional index does not automatically confer World index membership.

Can I look up another company’s CSA score?

Yes – S&P publishes CSA scores publicly. You can look up any company’s S&P Global CSA and ESG Scores on the S&P Global website without a portal login. More detailed benchmarking data, including peer comparisons and historical trends, is available within the CSA portal for invited companies and via S&P Capital IQ Pro and Bloomberg for subscribers. Your own CSA portal also includes a benchmarking view showing how your score compares against your industry peers, though bear in mind the mixed-year caveats noted above.

What’s the S&P CSA submission deadline?

There is no standard submission timeline for the CSA, but companies who are aiming for external recognition via the Sustainability Yearbook or Dow Jones Best-In-Class index should submit by the mid-October or December 31^st deadlines, respectively. S&P opens the assessment window in April, giving companies the option to select from several 2-month submission windows. Companies can select their own submission window within this period, which determines when their score will be released. Earlier submission windows receive scores earlier, in rolling waves from July onwards. However, selecting an earlier window may give companies less time to prepare their responses or add new content to public disclosure to address new criteria.

Why does my CSA percentile rank change after I receive my score?

This is one of the most common points of confusion in the CSA process. Because S&P releases scores in rolling waves throughout the year rather than all at once, your percentile rank is calculated against a moving population. When your score is first released, S&P uses a mix of current-year and prior-year scores for companies that haven’t yet received their updated result. As more current-year scores come in, the benchmarking population shifts – and your percentile rank can move, sometimes significantly, without your absolute score changing at all.

For this reason, we recommend waiting until after December 31st, when the majority of current-year scores are available, before drawing conclusions from percentile comparisons or publishing your ranking externally.

How does the CSA relate to other ESG frameworks like CDP, CSRD, and GRI?

The CSA is separate from mandatory reporting frameworks like CSRD and GRI, but there is significant overlap in the underlying data and disclosure requirements. Strong CDP reporting, for example, directly benefits CSA performance on climate-related questions. By publishing your CDP response publicly, for example, you can leverage the entirety of the response as evidence for relevant sections of the CSA questionnaire. CSRD’s double materiality assessment outputs can also be aligned with CSA materiality questions. GRI-aligned sustainability reports often contain the public evidence S&P analysts look for when scoring disclosure-dependent questions.

Rather than treating the CSA as a standalone exercise, the most efficient approach is to build a single ESG disclosure programme that simultaneously meets CSA criteria, CSRD requirements, and CDP reporting needs – identifying the overlapping data points and ensuring they are publicly evidenced in your annual reporting. This is particularly important given S&P’s consistent tightening of public disclosure requirements year-on-year.