Climate Innovation Indexes

Eligibility

Each index has slightly different eligibility criteria. The Maplecroft CII US 100 includes the 100 largest US companies by free-float market capitalisation, regardless of CII scores or climate-related disclosures. The Maplecroft CII Benchmark is developed from an initial universe of all US stocks with a free-float market capitalisation of over US$1bn. For Cycle 3, this initial set of c.1,300 stocks was narrowed to 346 stocks through a screen that selects companies based on their engagement in public climate-related programmes. Inclusion in the CII Leaders is by virtue of being one of the highest 100 scoring companies on our CII Questionnaire.

All eligible companies for each index are systematically scored against more than 100 climate performance criteria where innovation-related criteria account for 50% of the final score. A stock's representation in each index is then directly aligned with its score i.e. a stock that scores 80% is attributed four times more value than one that scores only 20%. Stocks within the Maplecroft CIIs are reviewed annually on all eligibility criteria and re-scored based on current disclosures.

Questionnaire and scoring

The Maplecroft CII questionnaire is based on international environmental and carbon accounting standards including ISO 14001, ISO 14064, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and others. Questions have been further validated by Maplecroft following more than five years of in-field auditing, piloting and refinement with leading-edge global brands. Companies in the Maplecroft CIIs have been systematically rated using a fully transparent process that scores each company across five pillars of climate-related performance:

1. Management through policies, disclosures, targets, verification and supply chain processes (12.5%)
2. Mitigation of carbon emissions through policy responsiveness, partnerships and efficiency (12.5%)
3. Emissions reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by reporting scope (12.5%)
4. Innovation of new technologies or initiatives that capitalise on climate-related opportunities (50%)
5. Adaptation by modelling climate impacts and changing company strategy and operations (12.5%)

The scoring of each company is completed by Maplecroft analysts using numerous relevant public domain disclosures. This is supplemented by direct engagement with each company to validate the initial scoring and fill gaps. Questions are systematically scored, peer reviewed and quantified by experienced analysts. Together this analysis ensures an objective, accurate and up-to-date account of a company's climate-related innovation and carbon management performance. The emphasis on engagement provides insight into company processes and enables two-way dialogue to identify areas of strength and weaknesses, thereby capturing performance and strategy not yet communicated to wider audiences.

Participating companies are also provided with their full completed questionnaire on request to cii@maplecroft.com