All-China Environment Federation issued draft guidance on corporate ESG evaluation 
On September 24, 2024, the All-China Environment Federation released a draft group standard “Guidance on corporate environment, society and governance (ESG) evaluation” and started to collect comments. The group standard includes the principles, contents, methods and procedures for corporate ESG evaluation. The standard applies not only to various organizations conducting ESG evaluations for corporates, but also applies to corporate self-evaluation. Based on the total score of the evaluation, corporates are classified into nine grades, from AAA to C.
Evaluation indicators
The evaluation indicators are listed in the table in Appendix A, which contains 48 indicators. The Environment (E) indicators are as follows.
Environmental management
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- Establishment of environment-related management system
- Ratio of environmental protection investment and gross enterprise product (GEP)
Resources usage
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- Water consumption intensity
- Proportion of recycled water usage
- Material consumption intensity
- Proportion of recycled materials consumption
- Energy consumption intensity
- New energy utilization rate
- Renewable energy utilization rate
Pollution control
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- Wastewater pollutant discharge intensity
- Wastewater discharge compliance rate
- Exhaust pollutants emission intensity
- Exhaust emission compliance rate
- Non-hazardous waste generation intensity
- Solid waste disposal compliance rate
Climate change
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- Greenhouse gas emissions
- Greenhouse gas emission intensity
- Greenhouse gas emission reduction intensity
- Obtaining carbon neutrality-related certification or title
- Biodiversity protection
- Green development
- Green intelligent manufacturing investment rate
- Green income rate
- Green procurement rate
For each indicator, a detailed explanation and evaluation methods are also provided in the table.
Evaluation rating
Depending on the total score based on the above evaluation indicators, corporates are classified into nine grades, from AAA to C. For example, a score between 95 and 100 points is classified as AAA, and a score between 60 and 65 points is classified as C.
How to use the evaluation results
As the group standard is a voluntary standard, corporates are not required to comply with it. The evaluation results can be used as a reference for governments and stakeholders at all levels to monitor and evaluate ESG implementation of corporates.
For the original text of the draft group standard, please refer to the following URL (in Simplified Chinese).
https://www.acef.com.cn/a/fzzx/news/2024/0924/29084.html
