Where can you find the right sustainability data for your financial application? This guide will help you choose.
Purchasing Sustainability Data: Where to Find ESG Data for Your Website and App—and What Matters
You want to show your users sustainability data so they can find companies and products that align with their values.
This is a sensible step, as interest in sustainable investing remains high among retail investors. However, purchasing ESG data is significantly more challenging than purchasing fundamental data.
With financial ratios, there’s a “reported truth.” With sustainability, there isn’t. Two reputable providers can rate the same company differently; methodologies are often opaque, and coverage of smaller and European companies is sparse. Choosing the wrong source here risks not only an expensive rebuild but also misleading statements to retail customers. This guide shows where to purchase sustainability data and what to look for when making your selection.
Where can I find sustainability data? Provider categories
The market is broader than for traditional financial data because ESG encompasses many dimensions: climate, social issues, corporate governance, supply chain, and controversies.
1. Major rating and research firms
MSCI, Morningstar Sustainalytics, S&P Global Sustainable1, LSEG, Bloomberg, ISS ESG, FTSE Russell, and Moody’s dominate the market. They offer broad global coverage, a long track record, and in-depth research reports. According to its own figures, Sustainalytics covers over 16,000 companies; MSCI and S&P Global cover a similar number. Data is typically delivered via terminals and enterprise data feeds at institutional prices.
These providers are ideal if you need institutional-level depth and regulatory compliance. For simple display in a retail app, their offerings are often too extensive and expensive.
2. Specialized Providers and Controversy Feeds
There are providers focused on specific dimensions. CDP delivers raw data on climate, water, and forests directly from corporate disclosures. RepRisk and similar services provide near-real-time controversy alerts to supplement static annual scores. EcoVadis evaluates supply chains. These sources are valuable when a specific dimension is the primary focus.
3. API-First Providers and Aggregators
Newer, developer-friendly providers such as Clarity AI or ESG Book rely on API access instead of terminals and are easier to integrate into an app. Some market data APIs also offer an ESG module. This is often the more pragmatic approach for technical integration, provided that coverage and licensing are suitable.
4. Your Own Collection of Primary Sources
Raw data can be found in companies’ sustainability reports (which in Europe are increasingly structured according to the CSRD and ESRS), in CDP disclosures, and in public registries. It’s free, but comes with the same caveat as fundamental data: you’re responsible for normalizing, ensuring comparability, and maintaining the data yourself. With ESG, the situation is further complicated by the fact that the depth of reporting varies greatly from company to company.
What to Look for When Making Your Selection
1. What does the score actually measure, and in what direction? ESG scores do not all measure the same thing. For whom do you intend to obtain and display this data anyway? Institutional investors are interested in completely different things here than the average retail investor.
2. Rating divergence and methodological transparency. The same company can be classified as a frontrunner by one provider and as high-risk by another. The much-cited MIT study by Berg, Kölbel, and Rigobon (2022) found an average correlation of only about 0.54 across six major agencies, while credit ratings hover around 0.99. Ironically, the governance dimension shows the least consistency. For you, this means: Request transparent documentation of the methodology, ask for sub-scores rather than just an overall score, and consider more than one source.
3. Redistribution Rights and Licensing. As with fundamental data, the following applies: Displaying this information to end users generally requires a separate redistribution license. ESG scores are often subject to even stricter licensing terms than pure market data because they incorporate the intellectual property of the rating methodology. Before signing a contract, clarify whether you are permitted to publicly display scores and labels.
4. Coverage, Timeliness, and Data Gaps. Check the coverage for your specific portfolio, especially for European stocks and small caps, where disclosure is more limited. Also note that scores are not updated in real time but according to the provider’s schedule.
5. Delivery and Price. Delivery options range from terminals to flat files to modern APIs. In terms of pricing, the major providers are in the enterprise range; API-first providers are more accessible, and some individual raw data sources, such as CDP, are freely available. As always, check rate limits, SLAs, and scalability.
From Compliance Data to Usage: The Often-Overlooked Point
Assuming the source, license, and methodology are correct, you’ll have accurate ESG data in the front end. But institutional risk scores rarely answer the question your retail users really have. A rating like “AA” or a risk score on a 0-to-50 scale is designed for portfolio management and regulatory reporting—not to help individual investors identify which companies align with their values.
This is exactly where we at money:care come in. We provide sustainability scoring across the dimensions of climate, society, and gender—tailored for the retail sector and available as a discovery layer via REST API or as a low-integration widget, all in compliance with regulations.
This helps investors find companies that align with their values and move from a general stance to a concrete investment idea.
Want to know what sustainability data your use case really needs and how values can be put to use? Talk to us. In a brief conversation, we’ll assess your needs and show you what a values-based discovery layer can look like.