5 October 2023
The Good Lobby officially launched The Good Lobby Tracker: the first attempt at comprehensively assessing all initiatives – from sustainability frameworks to ESG data and ratings providers – that aim to collect information on corporate political conduct.
Developed by Professor Alberto Alemanno, the applied research project is supported by the Porticus Foundation and is designed to help investors, civil society advocates, regulators and other stakeholders identify best practices when assessing the political footprint of companies.
The big picture shows that despite nascent best practices, disclosure of political activities remains a weak spot in ESG reporting, with the publication of lobbying and advocacy practices being the exception, not the norm. Yet the commitment to sustainable lobbying practices is emerging as the new frontier in sustainability reporting, and standards must be adapted accordingly.
The Good Lobby Tracker scores the world’s largest ESG data and ratings providers and other initiatives based on the quality of the political activity data they collect on companies.
The Tracker report was launched with a live webinar with more than 200 high-level ESG data and ratings actors, companies, investors and philanthropies from across the globe. The Tracker also publishes individual scorecards for 26 standards and initiatives, based on a series of indicators developed by The Good Lobby, which will be updated regularly in response to evolving best practice.
“The Tracker aspires to list all the qualities a regulation on corporate political transparency should have while providing each company the chance to self-assess its own corporate political activities against emerging best practices”, Professor Alberto Alemanno, Founder of The Good Lobby.
The Tracker has been designed by The Good Lobby Founder and HEC Professor Alberto Alemanno, with the support of Hamish Stewart and Dieter Zinnbauer.
Methodology
To develop the Tracker, The Good Lobby has screened the methodologies used by each relevant standard or initiative in an attempt to collate emerging best practices in the corporate accountability space. The resulting check-list, covering 30 indicator questions across 8 analytical categories, has been enriched with additional criteria developed by The Good Lobby.
These high ambition criteria seek to raise the standards for corporate political engagement and improve the quality of the public policy process. However, the analysis of existing corporate political responsibility initiatives, in particular those led by ESG ratings and data providers, is rendered difficult by the fragmented and proprietary nature of the methodologies used. To address this, The Good Lobby research team approached each provider and requested access to their methodologies for public research purposes, in order to be able to assess and score them.
In a second iteration, The Good Lobby has offered each provider the possibility to assess the score received and complement missing information. Other initiatives with public frameworks and methodologies have been contacted on an ad hoc basis.
For the full report click here.
Contact
Alberto Alemanno, Founder
[email protected]
Featured Articles
Why lobbying should be included in ESG ratings – Fortune
Le lobbying, angle mort de la notation ESG des enterprises – Novethic Essentiel
ESG Rating providers overlook corporate political activity, tracker shows – Sustainable Views
UN-Pri y Responsible Lobbying, los mejores proveedores ESG – Expansión