E-21 — ESG Measurement
A point-in-time ESG, sustainability or emissions data point for a subject — a score, a rating, an emissions figure, a taxonomy-alignment percentage — from a named provider, with its as-of date and methodology. The ESG analogue of Price & Market Data (E-08): an observed, multi-provider, time-series data point.
Purpose
ESG and sustainability data has the same essential shape as market data: a value, for a subject, on a date, from a provider — and, like market data, the providers disagree. One rating agency scores an issuer differently from another; emissions estimates differ by methodology and vintage; taxonomy-alignment figures depend on the assessor. That provider divergence is itself material information — a wide spread across providers tells the investor something a single flattened number hides. The ESG Measurement entity carries one provider’s data point per row, so divergence is first-class and visible rather than collapsed into a single value.
This is the parallel to E-08 Price & Market Data, and the reason ESG data is modelled as a measurement entity rather than only as a time-varying classification (E-11 / E-12): a categorical attribute — a controversy flag, a sector exclusion — fits the classification machinery, but a multi-provider numeric series with material divergence is closer to a market observation, and is modelled as one.
Attribute schema
| Column | Type | Definition |
|---|---|---|
esg_measurement_id | varchar | Primary key. |
subject_type | varchar | What the measurement is for — instrument (E-02) / issuer (E-01) / fund (PM-01) / portfolio (E-03). |
subject_id | varchar | The identifier of the subject. |
pillar | varchar | The ESG pillar or theme — environmental / social / governance / climate / impact. |
measure_type | varchar | The kind of measurement — score / rating / emissions / controversy / taxonomy_alignment / temperature_alignment. |
as_of_date | date | The date the measurement is as of. |
value | decimal | The measured value, where numeric (a score, an emissions figure, an alignment percentage). |
rating_label | varchar | The categorical label, where the measurement is a rating rather than a number; null for purely numeric measures. |
unit | varchar | The unit of a numeric measure — tco2e, score_0_100, pct, where applicable. |
provider | varchar | The ESG-data provider the measurement came from — the row is one provider’s view. |
methodology | varchar | The provider’s methodology or framework version behind the measurement. |
Notes
- Multi-provider by row. One ESG Measurement row is one provider’s data point. The full set for a subject and measure across providers is the divergence picture — surfacing disagreement is a stated requirement, not a flaw to be reconciled away into a single number.
- The distinction from the classification machinery (E-11 / E-12) matters: a categorical, taxonomy-style ESG attribute — a binary exclusion, a sector flag — is a classification; a numeric, multi-provider, time-series measurement is an ESG Measurement. The clean split is by shape, not by topic, and some ESG data sits on each side.
- Growing assurance and disclosure regimes (the SFDR and ISSB sustainability-disclosure standards) raise the audit-provenance bar: a reported sustainability figure must name its provider, methodology and as-of date, which the per-provider row carries natively.
Out of scope
- A categorical ESG attribute — a controversy flag, a sector exclusion, a binary screen — that is better carried as a time-varying classification (E-11 Classification Type & Value / E-12 Classification History); E-21 is the numeric, multi-provider, time-series measurement.
- A climate risk result produced by the risk function — a climate VaR, a transition-risk loss under a scenario — that is E-19 Risk Measurement (
risk_type = climate); E-21 is the input ESG / emissions data, not the computed risk number. - The raw market price of a green bond or a carbon allowance — that is E-08 Price & Market Data; E-21 is the sustainability attribute, not the market observation.
Owned and consumed by
- Owned by: SD-13.9 ESG & Sustainability Data.
- Consumed by: SD-07.8 Climate Risk Analytics, SD-10.9 ESG & Sustainability Compliance, SD-05.1 Portfolio Construction (ESG-tilted construction), SD-16.2 Owner & Investor Reporting, SD-16.3 Regulatory Reporting & Filings (sustainability disclosure).
Open extensions
- The provider-divergence model — how the spread across providers for a subject and measure is summarised and surfaced.
- Look-through aggregation — rolling issuer-level ESG measurements up to a portfolio-level footprint through the holdings.
- The relationship between an ESG Measurement and a derived portfolio sustainability metric defined in the semantic layer (E-22).