About this framework
Matter's flags help investors to go beyond simplified sustainability scores by highlighting important, granular information on an issuer's sustainability profile. Matter's 350 flags across x themes offer sustainability insights into every corner of your portfolio, from companies and States invested in beneficial activities such as clean transport, to those with poor management of biodiversity or human rights issues.
To meet the Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Agreement, companies and nations need to shift away from extractive, polluting, and societally damaging activities and behaviours, toward those that will create resilient and sustainable economies of tomorrow. We flag issuers for their involvement in activities driving sustainable development (e.g. renewable energy or healthcare) as well as those with adverse sustainability impacts (e.g. fossil fuels or gambling). We also draw on subject matter experts - leading NGOs, academia, and think tanks who are at the forefront of research and insight on issues such as deforestation, human rights, or corruption - to highlight issuers' beneficial or controversial behaviour on key sustainability themes.
By linking you to the insights of the thought leaders and subject matter experts that are closest to the context of critical sustainability topics, you receive a more holistic and accountable view of issuers' ESG performance.
The depth and breadth of Matter's sustainability flags allow you to understand the sustainability of investments at a granular level that comes closer to representing how well companies and sovereigns are managing the sustainability risk and impacts in the contexts in which they operate.
Beneficial, contested & controversial flags
Flags highlight where issuers' revenue-generating activities and conduct are supporting the sustainability transition (beneficial), creating negative social or environmental impacts (controversial), or where your investments are in activities subject to significant stakeholder debate such as Nuclear energy (contested)
More than ever, we have clear definitions of sustainability and global consensus on the future we are working towards. This includes global goals such as the Paris Agreement or the Sustainable Development Goals - which require 2.5 trillion USD in additional investment annually - to regulations defining what constitutes a sustainable economic activity (e.g. EU Taxonomy) and the impacts companies and investors have to measure and disclose (EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation). These give us clear frameworks for understanding which activities are contributing to or undermining sustainable outcomes - such as renewable energy (beneficial) or fossil fuels (controversial).
We also know what we should expect of companies and governments in terms of conduct: policies and processes to protect natural capital, workers, and societies, and science-based targets for improvement (beneficial), while avoiding polluting or unethical activities like crime and corruption (controversial). Matter also flags where your investments are exposed to activities for which there are contested or highly debated views, such as Nuclear Energy or Cannabis.
Platform visual