The Environmental pillar measures the ecological impact of companies through specific indicators such as greenhouse gas emissions (scopes 1, 2, and 3), energy consumption, waste management, biodiversity preservation, and natural resource use. This pillar is crucial in the current context of ecological transition.

Governance plays a pivotal role in coordinating environmental and social strategies. The board of directors validates decarbonization strategies, oversees diversity policies, and ensures the integrity of reporting. A McKinsey study reveals that 83% of investors believe ESG policies will contribute more to shareholder value over the next five years.

The Taxonomy Regulation (EU) 2020/852 establishes a unified classification system for sustainable economic activities. It defines six environmental objectives, including climate change mitigation and biodiversity protection. An activity must contribute substantially to at least one of these objectives without causing significant harm to the others (DNSH principle).

The SFDR Regulation classifies financial products into three categories: Article 6 for products without a specific sustainability objective, Article 8 for products promoting environmental or social characteristics ('light green' funds), and Article 9 for products with an explicit sustainable investment objective ('dark green' funds).

The Social pillar assesses not only internal working conditions, but also relationships with local communities, respect for human rights throughout the value chain, and inclusion and diversity. According to ManpowerGroup, 36% of French companies prioritize the social dimension in their CSR strategy, recognizing its importance for talent recruitment and retention.

The European regulatory pillars are interconnected. The Taxonomy provides the common language used in the CSRD and the SFDR. Companies subject to the CSRD must publish their Taxonomy alignment indicators, information that financial actors subject to the SFDR need for their reporting. This creates a coherent information chain.

The three ESG thematic pillars are Environmental, Social, and Governance. These criteria form the foundation of extra-financial analysis, theorized as early as 1998 by John Elkington under the 'triple bottom line' concept. Each pillar assesses specific aspects of corporate sustainability.

Sustainable investment approaches include exclusion, Best-in-Class, Best-in-Universe, shareholder engagement, and impact investing. Each has its own specifics: exclusion removes certain sectors, Best-in-Class selects best practices within each sector, etc.