Integrated ESG Analytics: A Data-Driven Framework for Sustainable Investment Decisions

SQL-based ESG analytics framework for evaluating sustainability performance and financial metrics across global manufacturing, automotive, and energy sector companies (2015–2025), enabling data-driven Net Zero-aligned investment decisions.

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Project Overview

This project develops a structured SQL analytics framework that integrates ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) scores with financial metrics across 20 global companies spanning the manufacturing, automotive, and energy industries — sectors at the forefront of the circular economy and Net Zero transition.

The analysis simulates the kind of data-driven decision-making used in ESG assurance, sustainability reporting, and responsible investment — identifying top ESG performers, laggards, and companies with the highest improvement trajectory over a 10-year period (2015–2025).

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Business Context & ESG Themes

ESG Theme	Relevance in This Project
Net Zero transition	Identifies companies with high ESG improvement trajectories (2015–2025), signalling Net Zero commitment
Circular Economy	Screens industries with the highest revenue but lowest ESG scores — key targets for circular economy engagement
Carbon Footprint / GHG Risk	High-growth, low-ESG companies flagged as Scope 1/2/3 emissions risks for portfolio managers
Sustainable Investment	Buy/hold/engage signals derived from ESG leader and laggard screening (top and bottom 10%)
Regional ESG Benchmarking	North America vs Europe ESG comparison — relevant for CSRD-ESRS and GRI Standards reporting alignment
Industry Baseline Setting	Industry-average ESG scores for 2024 — used for target-setting and materiality assessments

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Dataset

File: esgfinancialdata.csv

Column	Description
CompanyID	Unique company identifier
CompanyName	Company name
Industry	Sector (Manufacturing, Automotive, Energy, Technology, etc.)
Region	Geographic region (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific)
Year	Year of data (2015–2025)
ESG_Overall	Composite ESG score (0–100)
MarketCap	Market capitalisation (USD millions)
Revenue	Annual revenue (USD millions)
ProfitMargin	Net profit margin (%)
GrowthRate	Year-on-year revenue growth rate (%)

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12 Key Analysis Queries

#	Query	ESG / Investment Purpose
1	Above-average Market Cap & ESG (2025)	Identify companies balancing financial strength with sustainability
2	Top 5 companies by Revenue + ESG score	Revenue leaders with ESG performance context
3	Highest revenue, lowest ESG industry	Circular economy engagement targets — industries needing ESG uplift
4	High growth but low ESG companies	GHG / Scope 1/2/3 risk flags for responsible portfolio screening
5	ESG ranking within each industry	Competitive ESG positioning — useful for materiality assessments
6	Industry ESG baseline (2024)	Sector benchmarks for Net Zero target-setting and GRI reporting
7	ESG leaders — top 10% (2025)	Buy signals / sustainable investment portfolio inclusion
8	ESG laggards — bottom 10% (2025)	Sell signals / shareholder engagement opportunities
9	North America vs Europe ESG comparison	Regional benchmarking aligned with CSRD-ESRS and GRI Standards
10	ESG improvement 2015–2025	Net Zero commitment tracking — companies with highest ESG trajectory
11	Companies with ESG score > 70 (2025)	ESG-focused investment screening threshold
12	Negative profit margin + high ESG (2024)	Value investing — sustainability leaders under financial pressure

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SQL Techniques Demonstrated

• Window functions: RANK(), ROW_NUMBER(), NTILE() with PARTITION BY and ORDER BY
• Common Table Expressions (CTEs): Multi-step analysis with WITH clauses
• Subqueries: Dynamic benchmarking against dataset averages
• Aggregate functions: AVG(), MAX(), MIN(), ROUND() with GROUP BY and HAVING
• Multi-table joins: Year-on-year ESG improvement via self-join on CTEs
• Conditional filtering: WHERE, HAVING for ESG threshold screening

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Sample Queries

ESG Leaders — Top 10% performers for sustainable portfolio inclusion:

WITH cte AS (
    SELECT CompanyName, ESG_Overall,
    NTILE(10) OVER (ORDER BY ESG_Overall DESC) AS bucket
    FROM esgfinancialdata
    WHERE Year = 2025
)
SELECT * FROM cte WHERE bucket = 1;

Net Zero Commitment — Companies with highest ESG improvement (2015–2025):

WITH ESG_2015 AS (
    SELECT CompanyID, CompanyName, ESG_Overall AS ESG_2015
    FROM esgfinancialdata WHERE Year = 2015
),
ESG_2025 AS (
    SELECT CompanyID, CompanyName, ESG_Overall AS ESG_2025
    FROM esgfinancialdata WHERE Year = 2025
)
SELECT e2015.CompanyName,
       ROUND(e2025.ESG_2025 - e2015.ESG_2015, 2) AS ESG_Improvement,
       e2015.ESG_2015, e2025.ESG_2025
FROM ESG_2015 e2015
JOIN ESG_2025 e2025 ON e2015.CompanyID = e2025.CompanyID
ORDER BY ESG_Improvement DESC;

Circular Economy Targets — Industry with highest revenue but lowest ESG score:

SELECT Industry,
       ROUND(AVG(Revenue), 2) AS avg_revenue,
       ROUND(AVG(ESG_Overall), 2) AS avg_ESG
FROM esgfinancialdata
GROUP BY Industry
ORDER BY avg_revenue DESC, avg_ESG ASC
LIMIT 1;

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Key Findings

• ESG leaders in 2025 are concentrated in Technology and Healthcare; Manufacturing and Automotive lag behind — reinforcing the need for circular economy and Net Zero interventions in industrial sectors
• High-growth, low-ESG companies present the most significant Scope 1/2/3 GHG risk — flagged as engagement opportunities where ESG improvement potential is highest
• Europe outperforms North America on average ESG scores in 2025, consistent with CSRD-ESRS regulatory pressure driving stronger sustainability disclosures
• 10-year ESG trajectory (2015–2025) shows companies with consistent ESG improvement correlate with stronger long-term revenue growth, supporting the business case for sustainable investment

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Relevance to Sustainability Roles

This project directly mirrors analytical workflows used in:

• ESG assurance and reporting (GRI Standards, CSRD-ESRS compliance)
• Sustainability consulting for manufacturing and industrial sector clients
• Responsible investment and ESG portfolio construction
• Net Zero strategy — identifying improvement leaders and engagement targets

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Tools & Environment

• SQL (MySQL)
• Dataset: esgfinancialdata.csv (included in repository)

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Author

Somsuvra Nath ESG & Sustainability Professional | MBA Energy Management | B.Tech Electrical Engineering LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/somsuvranath | Kolkata, India