Frameworks

Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) and ESG Reporting

Since its launch in 1999, the DJSI has become a standard benchmark for assessing and highlighting the sustainability performance of organisations across various industries. This guide will explore the importance and benefits of inclusion in the DJSI, as well as how organisations can improve their scores.

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What is the DJSI?

Established in 1999, the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) represent a family of benchmarks that evaluate and rank companies based on their sustainability performance, with a strong emphasis on ESG (environmental, social, and governance) criteria. Each year, S&P’s Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) assesses companies to identify the top 10% per industry for inclusion in the index.

As part of a 2024 rebrand, S&P Dow Jones Indices renamed the DJSI family to Dow Jones Best-in-Class Indices, though the S&P Global CSA Scores will continue to be the key factor for constituent selection.

When was the DJSI introduced?

The DJSI was first launched in September 1999, pioneering global benchmarks for tracking companies’ sustainability performance alongside financial results.

S&P Dow Jones Indices partnered with SAM (now RobecoSAM), a sustainability-focused investment firm, to create the indices from the largest 2,500 publicly traded companies. They selected the top 10% based on rigorous corporate analysis of economic, environmental, and social criteria, including governance, risk management, climate strategies, supply chains, and labour standards. The flagship DJSI World Index specifically debuted on September 8, 1999.

The DJSI emerged amid rising investor interest in responsible investing and gained momentum in the late 1990s with demands for ethical, long-term value. They responded to a need for objective tools to measure sustainability leadership, rejecting underperformers and rewarding best-in-class firms across 60 industries. This filled a market gap by blending ESG factors with proven financial tracking, influencing corporate practices ever since.

Who is the DJSI for?

The DJSI is designed for stakeholders interested in organisations and entities committed to sustainability performance and corporate social responsibility. These include:

Investors

The DJSI helps investors identify resilient companies with superior sustainability practices and ESG-integrated portfolios that attract long-term capital and mitigate risks like regulatory changes. Inclusion in the index boosts analyst coverage and share ownership by dedicated funds, signalling strong performance.

Companies

Organisations gain competitive edges through peer benchmarking, enhanced reputation, and better investor relations, while aligning with the DJSI criteria reduces ESG risks and supports strategic sustainability integration. It differentiates them in talent and partnership markets.

Regulators and Policymakers

The DJSI offers standardised data on corporate ESG trends, informing regulations, incentives, and national sustainability goals by highlighting best practices and gaps across industries. It aids in monitoring compliance and promoting broader adoption of responsible standards.

Consumers

Consumers also use DJSI rankings to support ethical brands. This drives demand for transparent, sustainable products and pressures companies to be accountable. It builds trust via visible commitments to environmental and social issues.

Research and Academia

Scholars leverage the DJSI for empirical studies on ESG-financial links, index impacts, and sustainability evolution. This provides robust datasets for analysing corporate behaviour and investor reactions over time.

What is the DJSI methodology?

The DJSI assessment methodology has been managed by its co-founding companies, S&P Global and RobecoSAM, which centres on S&P Global’s Corporate Sustainability Assessment. In this core aspect, companies are evaluated using a rigorous annual assessment (61 industries) that covers 20 to 25 criteria. The S&P Global CSA assesses companies based on economic, environmental, and social dimensions.

To prevent the potential exclusion of entire sectors, the methodology identifies industry leaders in each industry, assessing them against sector-specific criteria.

The scoring process is as follows:

• Selection: Companies from various industries eligible for inclusion in the index are identified and selected. Industry eligibility is based on:
  • Sector classification: Industries are grouped into 62 sectors based on the S&P Global Industry Classification Benchmark (ICB).
  • Comparability requirement: Industries are combined, considering the comparability of scores for ESG dimensions and the sustainability issues addressed.
  • No industry exclusions: No industries are excluded from the selection process, but only the top-ranked companies within each industry are selected.
  • Company eligibility threshold: Companies must rank in the top 45% within their industry to be included in the CSA.
• Questionnaire: Selected companies complete a comprehensive questionnaire accessed through the S&P Global Sustainability Reporting Portal, covering various sustainability dimensions. This questionnaire is tailored to specific industries and includes both quantitative and qualitative questions.
• Data verification: RobecoSAM reviews and verifies the data provided by the companies. This includes analysing publicly available information, company reports, and other relevant sources to validate the data’s accuracy and reliability.
• Scoring: Companies receive a score based on their ESG performance, calculated using a combination of absolute and relative measures.
• Index construction: The highest-scored companies in each industry are selected for inclusion in the DJSI. The index is then rebalanced annually to ensure sustainability leaders in each industry remain represented. The inclusion thresholds vary by index type:
  • DJSI World: Top 10% by score within each industry
  • DJSI North America: Top 20% by score within each industry
  • DJSI Europe: Top 20% by score within each industry
  • DJSI Asia Pacific: Top 20% by score within each industry
  • DJSI Emerging Markets: Top 10% by score within each industry
  • Country-specific indices: Top 30% by score within each industry

The total DJSI score is a weighted sum of the ESG criteria, resulting in a score out of 100. Scores are reviewed and updated annually and adjusted based on a company’s handling of controversies or crises, such as legal disputes or environmental violations.

What is the DJSI Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA)?

The DJSI Corporate Sustainability Assessment is the rigorous, annual evaluation methodology used to determine which companies are included in the DJSI. Given its industry-specific nature, the DJSI CSA covers a comprehensive range of criteria across three core dimensions: Economic, Environmental, and Social. These core dimensions are used to determine companies’ eligibility for the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.

What does CSA cover?

Economic dimension

The economic dimension examines how well a company governs itself to create long-term value. It covers topics such as corporate governance, risk and crisis management, codes of conduct, innovation, tax strategy, and how the company manages opportunities and risks that affect its financial performance. The focus is on whether systems, policies, and practices are in place to support sustainable, profitable growth beyond short-term earnings.

Environmental dimension

The environmental dimension assesses how a company manages its impacts on the natural environment, including both risks and opportunities. It covers issues such as climate strategy, emissions, energy use, resource efficiency, waste, water, biodiversity, and environmental reporting. In particular, this dimension assesses whether organisations have robust strategies, targets, and performance, helping to reduce negative environmental impacts.

Social dimension

The social dimension evaluates how a company manages relationships with people, including employees, communities, customers, and other stakeholders. It typically covers labour practices, human capital development, health and safety, human rights, diversity and inclusion, supply chain standards, and social impact or community engagement. This dimension emphasises a company’s ability to protect and develop its workforce while contributing positively to society and minimising social risks.

How is data collected?

Data for the DJSI comes from a mix of company self-reporting and analyst research, all funnelled through S&P Global’s CSA process. Every year, thousands of eligible companies are invited to complete the detailed questionnaire, uploading documents, policies, and performance data as evidence. Some of these data points are treated as confidential, while a smaller portion is not.

Aside from the questionnaire, S&P analysts also collect and verify information from publicly available sources such as sustainability reports, annual reports, company websites, news, or NGO reports. The responses and external evidence are checked for consistency and then scored alongside the three CSA dimensions (Economic, Environmental, Social) before finally tallying up to an overall CSA score. Finally, the CSA scores are used to calculate ESG scores and to determine which companies qualify for inclusion in the DJSI.

Can a company apply for admission?

No, a company cannot simply apply to be admitted into the DJSI. Admission is based strictly on how an organisation scores in the CSA, relative to its industry peers.

While companies cannot apply for admission to the DJSI, they can maximise their chances by being part of the DJSI’s “eligible universe” and actively participating in the CSA, as well as by improving their ESG performance and disclosure.

What benefits does inclusion in the DJSI provide?

Inclusion in the DJSI mainly benefits reputation, investors, and internal management of sustainability performance.

Reputation and market positioning

Inclusion in the DJSI signals that a company is among the top ESG performers in its sector or industry, which strengthens brand image with customers, employees, regulators, and civil society. It is often used as a “badge of honour” in communications, helping to differentiate the company from its peers in sustainability.

Investor attention and access to capital

Many asset managers and ESG funds use the DJSI as a reference, so inclusion can attract more sustainable and long-term investors and improve access to capital. DJSI inclusion is associated with more analyst coverage and a higher share of equity held by long-term investors, which can support share price stability and lower cost of capital over time.

Strategic and operational benefits

The DJSI process gives companies detailed feedback and benchmarking, helping them identify ESG strengths, gaps, and improvement opportunities against industry peers. This can drive better risk management and support continuous improvement in sustainability practices and disclosures.

How Presgo Supports DJSI-Aligned Reporting

Presgo is an AI-first ESG reporting platform, designed by industry experts, that helps your organisation build DJSI-aligned reports. The software is equipped with built-in modules that allow organisations to scale their sustainability reporting journey according to business growth and shifting regulatory expectations.

Data Hub

Presgo’s Data Hub helps centralise data collection from finance, HR operations, and other teams, providing structured workflows and audit-ready storage. This directly supports evidence requests for the CSA and helps ensure consistency and completeness across the many indicators the CSA covers.

Disclosure Hub

The Disclosure Hub module uses pre-mapped data, charts, and narrative components to assemble ESG reports that align with frameworks such as the GRI and ISSB. Companies typically repurpose disclosures from those frameworks to answer CSA questions and to communicate DJSI inclusion to investors.

Carbon Calculator

Presgo’s Carbon Calculator automatically calculates scopes 1-3 emissions using mapped activity data and verified emission factors, with transparency on calculation methods. This provides audit-ready emissions baselines, year-on-year trends, and methodological clarity required to respond to climate and environmental questions in the CSA.

Goals and Performance

Presgo’s Goals and Performance module lets companies set ESG goals, monitor KPIs, and highlight underperformance before reporting cycles. That supports DJSI-aligned reporting by providing time-series data, target vs actual performance, and early warnings of negative shifts in metrics.

Learn more about how you can create DJSI-aligned reports using Presgo.