ESG analyst: which rule each datapoint answers

Collects, checks and structures the data behind sustainability disclosures and requests: emissions, energy, workforce and governance datapoints, mapped to the rule or questionnaire each one answers.

The title has no legal definition, and some analysts work for companies while others work in investment firms analysing other companies.

Among others, absolute gross greenhouse gas emissions classified by Scope 1, 2 and 3 in paragraph 29(a), and, where an entity discloses a net target, the associated gross target separately under paragraph 36(c).

Offsets are never deducted from the gross figure.

No. UK SRS S2 requires gross emissions, and SECR contains no netting-off provision.

Offsets can be disclosed separately but are not deducted from the reported total.

A ratio that expresses the company’s annual emissions in relation to a quantifiable factor associated with its activities.

The directors’ report must state at least one, and the company chooses it. It is an emissions ratio, not an energy ratio.

A conditional relief from disclosing certain energy and emissions information for a company using 40,000 kWh or less of UK energy, with one version for quoted and one for unquoted companies.

It is a disclosure relief, not an exemption from SECR, and it is 40,000 kWh, never 40 MWh.

For listed companies, UK SRS S2 includes Scope 3 and the FCA’s final rules allow one year’s non-disclosure of it as a relief, which a company using it must state.

For other companies, UK SRS is voluntary, and SECR requires only the transport-fuel element of Scope 3 for unquoted companies.

None is required by law.

Investment-side analysts often take the CFA Institute’s Sustainable Investing Certificate, and environment-side analysts the ISEP route.

The National Careers Service lists a level 4 apprenticeship for corporate responsibility and sustainability practitioners.

No official statistic reports pay for ESG analysts.

The Home Office going rate for the nearest occupation group, SOC 2152, is £37,200 on a 37.5-hour week and covers every grade in the group.

The salary guide shows how far to rely on it.

The energy savings actually achieved in the compliance period: a description of each measure implemented, the saving in kWh and its category.

Only the combined saving is published, and per-measure figures are not.

UK SRS S1 asks for data and assumptions consistent, as far as possible, with those used in the related financial statements, so one datapoint reported differently in two places is a finding waiting to happen.