Investment companies often work with external research and rating agencies, which are alternative or additive to their own in-house research, to determine the ecological, social and sustainability performance of investment candidates. Two approaches can generally be identified:
- Agencies that have developed an own concept for the evaluation of companies and are selling this to their customers
- Agencies that use evaluation criteria dictated by the customer or developed in co-operation with the customer
Practically, all agencies now offer both services.
The platform "www.sustainable-investment.org" contains profiles of major European research providers.