[4] To be incorporated in the DJSI, companies are assessed and selected based on their long-term economic, social and environmental asset management plans.
Selection criteria evolve each year and companies must continue to make improvements to their long-term sustainability plans in order to remain on the Index.
All indices that are not subsets include companies that generate revenue from alcohol, tobacco, gambling, armaments and firearms, and adult entertainment.
Customized indices are continuously being developed and delivered to encompass different regions or individualized sections of companies to add additional exclusions when needed and to change the currencies they are denoted in.
The DJSI have been divided into various benchmarks including the World, Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, Nordic, and Korean indices.
Both subsets were initially published in August 2008 and track the performance of the largest 80 companies globally in terms of sustainability, with the DJSI World ex US 80 excluding the US from the top 80.
Examples of events that would lead to exclusion include: commercial practices, human rights abuses, layoffs or worker disputes, or catastrophic disasters.
This monitoring is supported by RepRisk, a global research firm and provider of environmental, social and governance (ESG) risk data.
[4] In early 2009, an independent expert study commissioned by the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) and presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos, highlighted the SAM assessment as "the most rigorous in terms of the number of questions and depth of information requested".
[16] Included in the most recent SAM questionnaire are more difficult to measure intangible business attributes such as innovation and customer relationship management.
[17][18] Using self-reported data as proxies for the social or environmental effects the DJSI intends to reflect leaves the index exposed to corporate biases and additional credibility risks.
It rewards companies with greatest capacity to respond to SAM's questionnaires and information requests rather than those with the best socially responsible practices.
Ultimately, companies with challenging corporate environmental and social issues are more likely to devote public relations resources to minimize the perception of risk within their operations.
For the MSA, RobecoSAM works with RepRisk, a global research firm specialized in risk analytics and metrics related to environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.
RepRisk screens media outlets, stakeholder groups and other publicly available sources to identify risks, which are then systematically analyzed and quantified.
[20] It has been also found that in the DJSI the three dimensions of sustainability are not considered in a balanced way, being biased towards economic criteria to the disadvantage of social and environmental ones.