31. 3. 2022

International Agencies Increase ČEZ’s ESG Rating

Major international agencies focused on the ESG rating of corporations have increased ČEZ Group’s rating by several percentage points. The company’s rating has improved, for example, with the world’s largest ESG rating provider MSCI, the US financial company S&P Global, and with the Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS). Last May, ČEZ Group announced its goal to be among the best 20% of companies in the energy sector in terms of sustainability rating.

In addition to financial ratings, investors, banks, insurance companies and funds have increasingly taken into account companies’ ESG rating in recent years, which evaluates companies on the basis of long-term environmental, social, and governance criteria that are usually not reflected in traditional financial reports. ČEZ Group has improved year-on-year in the ESG ratings of the world’s largest ESG agencies. ČEZ began to work on improving its rating systematically last May, after the announcement of Vision 2030. 

In addition to financial ratings, investors, banks, insurance companies and funds have increasingly taken into account companies’ ESG rating in recent years, which evaluates companies on the basis of long-term environmental, social, and governance criteria that are usually not reflected in traditional financial reports. ČEZ Group has improved year-on-year in the ESG ratings of the world’s largest ESG agencies. ČEZ began to work on improving its rating systematically last May, after the announcement of Vision 2030. 

“As part of Vision 2030, we have set ambitious targets for reducing emissions, building renewable sources, caring for employees and customers, and for corporate governance.  Their gradual implementation should put us among the top fifth of energy companies in the international ESG ranking.  I am pleased that we have improved significantly this year, and I believe we will continue to do so,” says ČEZ Group’s Chief Sustainability Officer Kateřina Bohuslavová. 

The world’s largest provider of ESG ratings, the analytical and information company MSCI, has increased ČEZ Group’s rating by 10%, giving it a BBB rating.  The company has noted the biggest improvement in the area of Governance (an improvement by 40%). 

The US financial company S&P Global, which sets ESG scores for 8,000 companies around the world, has also moved ČEZ up in terms of sustainable business, by an average of 12 percent.  This places ČEZ Group among the top 30% of the best-rated companies in S&P Global’s impressive portfolio.

And thirdly: in the ESG rating of ISS, a member of the German international Deutsche Börse Group, a company engaged in exchange-trading in financial instruments, ČEZ moved up by more than two points year on year.  

What is ESG

Investors no longer evaluate companies solely on the basis of the appreciation of their investments or the dividend paid.  Factors that cannot be measured in monetary terms are playing an increasingly important role in their decisions where to invest.  In the same way that companies are judged internationally according to established financial indicators, non-financial evaluation criteria are also emerging.  These have come to be known as ESG, from the English words Environmental (how a company protects the environment, whether it uses natural resources, water, and energy economically, how it reduces waste and emissions), Social (a company’s approach to its employees, customers, suppliers, and the communities in which it operates) and Governance (the quality of a company’s operations and management, its internal processes and controls, the protection of stakeholder rights, and comprehensive, truthful reporting).