ESG Controversy Case Study:

Volkswagen

July 5, 2022

Tracking the ESG events surrounding companies, products or individuals associated with your brand, portfolio or supply chain can help you manage corporate and investment risk, and get ahead of the curve.

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In September 2015, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a legal notice of violation of the Clean Air Act (CAA) to the car manufacturer Volkswagen AG. The EPA investigation found that the company had intentionally introduced software in its diesel engines to rig the environmental performance of vehicles during regulatory testing. The company declared in 2020 that the dieselgate scandal had cost it over $34 billion in fines and settlements.

Our news-based ESG Controversy Scoring Framework captured the different dimensions of this scandal, as follows:

ESG Controversy Case Study:

Volkswagen

Click the hot spots on the chart for more details

ESG Controversy Scores 0 2 4 6 Pollution Corporate reputation Environmental compliance Management and board Product regulatory compliance 2015 2016 2017 September 18th, 2015 The EPA orders the company to recall cars produced from 2009 to 2015. September 20th, 2015 The company acknowledges wrongdoing and issues a public apology. September 23rd, 2015 CEO Martin Winterkorn resigns. October 2015 The company provisions EUR 6.5bn to deal with the recall and subsequent legal fees. The recall is extended to 8.5 million cars worldwide.

It's often difficult to follow all the news to build a complete ESG picture, particularly when events are less reported. Benefits from local and global newswire coverage, RavenPack’s ESG controversy framework gives investors the opportunity to identify companies involved in controversial events reported in local news outlets before the information reaches the mainstream media. Furthermore, RavenPack’s decades-long news archive and global coverage provides investors with the ability to derive insights from a unique source of sustainability signals.

Check out other ESG controversy case studies that have been widely reported, to understand how the RavenPack ESG Scoring Framework works, or request a trial to explore how it could help you stay on top of ESG controversies impacting your brands or portfolios.

Request a trial to start tracking ESG events related to your brand or portfolio.




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ESG Controversy Databite series

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RavenPack’s ESG Controversy Scoring Framework is based on real-time detections of events across 40,000+ news sources in 13 different languages. It follows an event-based approach that can help assess the extent of a firm’s ESG controversy exposure through time by monitoring real-time news coverage.