The paper is co-authored by Robeco’s Jan Anton van Zanten, SDG Strategist, and Laurens Swinkels, Head of Quant Research, along with Anna Vasileva, Doctoral Student at the University of Zurich. Their research found that companies with a higher alignment with the SDGs have a lower probability of being involved in scandals, or are involved in fewer scandals that are less severe.

The study showed that for companies in more resource-intensive and thereby less sustainable sectors such as oil exploration or coal mining, the sustainability risks that companies face are even bigger when it comes to encountering accidents that can turn into scandals. SDGs related to climate change are particularly strongly related to scandal involvement. The results point to corporate sustainability being an indicator of corporate legitimacy.