Europe leads the way globally on sustainable investing. In 2018, the total assets committed to sustainable and responsible investment strategies exceeded €12 trillion, representing 46% of the global total. The growth in global assets committed to sustainable strategies is forecast to continue over the next decade, as sustainable investing becomes fully integrated into asset management. A key requirement of forming sustainable investment strategies is access to high-quality sustainability-related data, ratings and research.

In this context, this study describes the state of play of the sustainability-related products and services market; establishes an inventory and classification of market actors, sustainability products and services available in the market; and analyses the use and quality of sustainability-related products and services by market participants. The study explores how the reliability and quality of assessment of sustainability-related data, ratings and research by third party providers can be enhanced and provides recommendations to stimulate demand and improve the quality of supply.

This research is based on a combination of desk research and stakeholder engagement with various actors across the value chain. For the latter, stakeholders ranging from listed companies, to sustainability-related data, ratings and research provider, asset management and owners, industry experts and non-governmental organisations participated either through an online survey or in depth interviews.