ESG Scorecard

This is an ESG self-assessment. You score 20 questions about your organisation's environmental, social and governance practices, each on a scale from zero to five, and it returns a weighted score as a percentage, a band, a score for each of the three pillars, and a ranked list of the gaps worth closing first.

What it is not. The 20 questions were written for this workbook. They are not drawn from any disclosure standard or rating methodology, they do not cover any framework exhaustively, and a score here says nothing about conformance to one. It is not an ESG rating: the published ratings from agencies such as MSCI or Sustainalytics use proprietary methodologies, different inputs and outside research, and nothing on this page reproduces or approximates them. It is not a CSRD, GRI, SASB or ISSB disclosure, it is not assured, and the weights, rating scale and band boundaries are all editable and carry no official standing.

What it is good for is an honest internal picture of where an organisation stands across the three pillars, and a defensible order of work. The weighted gap list is the most useful output: it tells you what to fix first rather than only what is weak.

Purpose and model boundary

This model scores self-reported environmental, social and governance practice maturity across twenty fixed questions. It rolls weighted question scores into three pillar scores, then combines the pillars into an overall score, maturity band and weighted improvement-priority list.

It measures whether practices are established, governed and verified; it does not measure environmental or social performance itself. The questions are original to this workbook. The result is not an ESG rating, audit, disclosure, certification or determination of compliance with a reporting standard.

Inputs and units

Each question row contains two locked descriptive fields and three editable fields:

The published page uses fixed category weights of Environmental 35, Social 30 and Governance 35. The band table is also fixed on the page: 0% Not established, 25% Initial, 45% Developing, 65% Managed and 85% Optimised. The downloaded workbook exposes those author settings on its Data sheet, but they are not page inputs.

Governing relationships

With maximum score s_max = 5, the score for category c is:

CategoryScore_c = sum over i in c (w_i × s_i × a_i) / (s_max × sum over i in c (w_i × a_i))

A question marked Not applicable is removed from both numerator and denominator. If a category has no applicable questions, its score is returned as zero, its band reads not assessed, and the category is excluded from the overall category-weight denominator.

With fixed pillar weight W_c, the overall score is:

OverallScore = sum over assessed c (W_c × CategoryScore_c) / sum over assessed c W_c

The workbook assigns the highest band whose minimum threshold is not greater than 100 × OverallScore.

For each question, the raw weighted gap is:

Gap_i = w_i × (s_max - s_i) × a_i

Points_Available_To_Gain = sum(Gap_i)

Positive gaps are ranked from greatest to least. A small row-index term breaks ties so the top three priorities are unique. The reported top-three share is:

TopThreeShare = sum(Gap_i for priority ranks 1 through 3) / sum(Gap_i)

and returns zero when total gap is zero.

Calculation sequence

1. Validate every score label, applicability label and question weight.
2. Convert the two categorical choices to numeric score and scope flags.
3. Calculate weighted score and weighted shortfall for every applicable question.
4. Calculate each pillar score and band from applicable questions in that pillar.
5. Apply the fixed pillar weights to assessed pillars and calculate the overall score and band.
6. Rank positive weighted gaps, return the top three questions, and calculate their share of the total gap.
7. Return scope counts, category extrema and Model_Status using the precedence below.

Outputs and interpretation

Overall_Score is a normalized 0-to-100% maturity summary under the workbook's chosen question and pillar weights. Overall_Band is a descriptive maturity label, not an external rating. Category_Scores and the bar chart show the within-pillar scores rather than each pillar's weighted contribution to the overall score.

Points_Available_To_Gain is a raw sum of weight × score shortfall; it is not a percentage-point gap and changes when weights change. The priority outputs identify the largest positive weighted gaps, not necessarily the lowest raw scores. Highest and lowest category outputs consider only assessed categories.

Validation and status logic

The workbook evaluates status in this order:

Input validity and denominator checks take precedence over warnings. The Not-applicable warning takes precedence over the low-score warning.

Assumptions and limitations

• Answers are self-reported and depend on the respondent's knowledge and honesty. An independent assessment can score differently.
• Practice maturity is not performance. A mature measurement process does not by itself show low emissions, good labor outcomes or effective governance.
• The question set is not a reporting-standard disclosure list and does not establish readiness under IFRS Sustainability, GRI or another framework.
• Default question weights, pillar weights, rating labels and maturity bands are illustrative and carry no official standing. Different weights can change the score and priority order.
• Not applicable is an exclusion, not a favorable answer. It should be used only when a question genuinely does not apply.
• The model does not collect evidence, test controls, validate source data, assess materiality, prepare disclosures or substantiate public sustainability claims.
• Category and overall averages can conceal a severe individual gap; review the priority list and question-level answers alongside the headline score.

Restrictions and non-computing states

The assessment has exactly twenty rows. Locked category and question text is display-only and never sent back to the workbook. Every editable weight, score and applicability cell must be present even when a question is Not applicable. The page refuses negative weights, unlisted choices, blank required cells and an incorrect grid shape before calculation. The workbook requires at least one Applicable question and positive total in-scope weight.

Errors and warnings

A rejected entry means the submitted assessment did not meet the page's declared shape or cell rules. Workbook NOT VALID means there is no usable scoring basis. Workbook CHECK preserves the calculated score while asking the reader to review exclusions or a below-Developing result. A connection or calculation-service failure is a service problem and carries no ESG meaning.

The workbook derives its scoring rather than reproducing any table, chart, figure or question set from a standard, framework or rating methodology. The 20 questions are original to this workbook, and the weights, the rating scale and the band boundaries are choices made in it rather than provisions taken from anywhere.

The following are offered as orientation to the disclosure landscape this tool sits beside but does not implement:

• Global Reporting Initiative. GRI Standards. https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/
• IFRS Foundation. ISSB Standards, IFRS S1 and S2. https://www.ifrs.org/groups/international-sustainability-standards-board/
• European Commission. Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. https://finance.ec.europa.eu/capital-markets-union-and-financial-markets/company-reporting-and-auditing/company-reporting/corporate-sustainability-reporting_en
• Wikipedia. Environmental, social, and governance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental,_social,_and_governance

None of those is implemented here and a score from this page is not a step toward reporting under any of them. No trademark or organisation name appearing in this tool implies endorsement by its owner.

Additional source notes migrated from Methodology

The workbook's questions and scoring scheme are original. Its release audit uses IFRS S1 General Requirements and GRI 3: Material Topics 2021 only to establish the surrounding domain and the importance of materiality. This calculator does not implement either standard.