Climate Change is Risky: Using a Computational Methodology to Relate Corporate Sustainability Reports with their Grades

Based on stakeholder theory, this study aims to analyze ESG (environmental, social, and governance) reports from sustainable corporations, identify key themes, and investigate their relationship to sustainability grades. The Analysis of Topic Model Networks (ANTMN) approach extracted topics, identified thematic clusters, and mapped their interconnections. Findings indicate that the issues most prominently linked were climate change, climate sustainability, and employee safety; waste and energy did not show correlations. Corporations can therefore interrogate their ESG reports, focusing on key performance indicators and sustainability grades. This research uses a unique methodological approach to understand key topics featured in ESG reports and their relationship with established sustainability grades. Moreover, our results offer novel insight into the communications documents and the link between sustainability and risk.