China’s leading internet and online gaming services provider company NetEase has received impressive environmental, social, and governance (ESG) scores in the Morgan Stanley Capital International’s (MSCI) and Sustainalytics ratings in 2022. The global rating agency MSCI gave a score of ‘A’ to the company’s environmental, social, and governance performance while the other prominent rating agency, Sustainalytics, gave a score of 14.7 in its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) assessment scale in November 2022. NetEase has been dedicated to adopting sustainability in its overall operations and the above scores show how the company is advancing toward improving environmental, social, and governance issues such as carbon emissions, corporate governance, corporate behaviour, and human capital development. 

However, when it comes to the ESG performance of its competitor Baidu, the ESG scores are way behind. The company has a score of ‘BBB’ by global rating firm MSCI and an ESG score of only 24 by Sustainalytics, which shows there is still a lot of work to do in terms of implementing within their company operations. Similarly, Chinese multinational technology Alibaba Group has a below-average ESG score of 26.4 by Sustainalytics and a ‘BBB’ ESG score by MSCI, showing that the company needs to work on sustainable operations and building investor confidence to lower ESG risks. On a comparative note, Microsoft scored ‘AAA’ with MSCI, which shows the company is advancing towards transparency in ESG matters.  

Along with receiving impressive ESG scores from leading global rating agencies MSCI and Sustainalytics, NetEase has also been included as a member in the prestigious 2022 Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSI) and Dow Jones Sustainability Emerging Markets Index for the first time, putting it among the top businesses in the world with exceptional sustainability performance. The company received an ESG assessment score of 49 in 2022, making it the only media and corporation from the Chinese mainland to be a part of the DJSI World Index and Emerging Markets Index in 2022.     

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