ESG Ratings and Rankings
In today’s rapidly evolving financial landscape, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations have become paramount for investors, corporations, and stakeholders alike. Our dedication to transparency and accountability has earned us recognition in various ESG ratings, rankings, and benchmarks.
ESG Ratings
ESG rating agencies assess multiple indicators especially on environmental, social and governance topics (ESG) and measure a company’s respective risk exposure as well as the performance on how these ESG risks are being managed. The methodologies used by the ESG rating agencies differ in particular with regard to which ESG topics are considered to be material for the assessment.
The results published by these ESG rating agencies are commonly referred to as “ESG ratings”. Listed companies like Bayer are assessed by multiple ESG rating agencies - often publishing heterogenous results.
The basis for the ESG rating agencies’ assessments are Bayer’s publicly available Reports and Statements. We constantly screen the requirements of ESG rating agencies and aim to provide the respective data and information as part of our comprehensive reporting. Through this increased transparency on ESG topics and through targeted and constructive dialogue, we have made significant progress in recent years with what we consider to be the most important ESG rating agencies and ESG rankings.
A short description and explanation of some selected ESG ratings and rankings is listed below (click on the arrow to use the hide-flip function).
On a scale from AAA (best grade) to CCC (worst grade), Bayer was rated A in 2022 by the rating agency MSCI and is thus in the industry average of the pharmaceutical companies examined.
On a scale from A (best grade) to D, Bayer was rated B- by the rating agency ISS ESG in 2023, making it one of the top 10% of all companies in the chemical industry examined. The so-called “prime status” with the classification (B-) was reached for the first time in 2023.
The Sustainalytics ESG Risk Rating evaluates the sustainability performance of companies in five risk levels on a scale from "negligible" to "severe". Bayer was classified in the “medium risk” category in 2024 with a score of 26.6. Bayer is thus above the sector average of the pharmaceutical industry defined by Sustainalytics.
With a scoring of 75 (out of 100) Bayer places among the top 2% of the companies assessed in the Manufacture of basic pharmaceutical products and pharmaceutical preparations industry.
ESG Rankings and other assessments
Besides the global and common ESG rating agencies’ surveys, many other inquiries on sustainability issues are performed, which are equally important as they take a deeper look into divisional and functional areas and their ESG performance. They may provide a dedicated “ESG scoring” or they perform comprehensive comparisons between peers and competitors for a certain field of activities.
