The latest developments in the ESG space.

As firms become increasingly concerned about their ESG ratings, Dynamo Software, a London-based cloud software platform for the alternatives ecosystem, and CSRHub have partnered to integrate an ESG risk management tool into alternatives asset management platforms.

Investors in alternative assets need a way of looking at their investments that takes subjectivity out of their assessments, the firm said in a statement. The integrated, end-to-end big data platform uses a patented algorithm to aggregate, normalize, and weigh ESG metrics from more than 850 expert sources, accumulating more than 450 million pieces of data for analysis.

Momchil Barros-Mitov, co-head of data automation at Dynamo, said: “The Dynamo-CSRHub integration helps investors take subjectivity out of the ratings universe by providing a CSRHub consensus overall score and four ESG category scores.”

Meyer Memorial Trust, a US-based philanthropic trust designed to accelerate racial, social and economic justice in Oregon, and a client of Dynamo, is an early adopter of the CSRHub ESG integration, the firm continued. 

Meyer is using the platform to establish ESG ratings on the underlying holdings in its portfolio funds and conduct exposure analysis from the top level, fund level, across the firm, and at a portfolio level. The platform enables Meyer to ascertain an overall score of its portfolio, an ESG history of each company’s individual ESG score, and export the data into reports it can share with its stakeholders.

Sohel Hussain, Meyer’s interim director of investments, said: “This platform enables us to assess how our values align with our impact and how that impact can drive long-term financial and social viability.” 

The Dynamo integration provides added impetus to CSRHub’s mission to increase access to company ESG performance and use transparency as a lever to improve corporate sustainability.

"We’re exposing more investors to what is now possible with ESG ratings," said Cynthia Figge, co-founder and CEO at CSRHub. "We’re making it possible to examine almost all aspects of the ESG investment universe, and establish a framework around which investors can constructively engage with the companies they invest in. This creates tremendous long-term value.”

“There are a lot of scoring frameworks available,” said Danielle Pepin, head of the ESG product at Dynamo. “However, we are excited about this integration because CSRHub breaks down ratings into meaningful sub-categories within the concept of corporate responsibility, and combines hundreds of sources for a more robust assessment,” she added.