About Impact Data in Ziggma: Coverage, Origin and Methodology

Image of flaring


Last updated: May 2026

Ziggma is a  portfolio analytics platform built for self-directed investors who want to  align their investments with their values, and ultimately the future they want to live in. 
The impact data displayed in Ziggma is provided by ACA Ethos,  an independent, specialized impact data provider that aggregates environmental and social  metrics from hundreds of global sources. Ziggma uses this impact data to provide meaningful and actionable insights into the real-world impact of private investors' invested capital, and a wealth of impact data points on publicly traded companies, ETFs and mutual funds.

At a glance
~600raw metrics per company
80topic-level scores
Monthlydata refresh cycle

What the Impact Score measures

The Ziggma Impact Score (0–100) reflects how positively a company or fund contributes to real-world environmental and social outcomes. The higher a score the more positive its impact on the planet and society.

The score is not an ESG risk rating. ESG ratings measure how environmental, social, and governance factors affect a company's financial performance. The Impact Score measures the reverse: how a company affects the world around it. A fossil fuel company can carry a high ESG risk rating — meaning it manages its regulatory exposure well — while still scoring low on real-world impact.

How the Impact Score is calculated

The Impact Score is not a single metric but a composite built from hundreds of underlying data points. ACA Ethos follows a five-step process to turn raw environmental and social data into a single 0–100 score that is comparable across companies, industries, and geographies.

1
Raw metrics collected — ~600 environmental and social indicators per company, sourced from corporate disclosures, government databases, NGOs, licensed providers, and daily media monitoring.
2
Metrics normalized — raw values are standardized to remove scale differences across companies and industries.
3
Topic scores built — ~80 topic-level scores are calculated, each aggregating 30–60 weighted metrics selected for relevance and data credibility.
4
Peer normalization — scores are normalized relative to industry peer groups and the global universe.
5
Impact Score aggregated — final 0–100 score reflects positive contributions. Controversy events are incorporated as downward adjustments.


How to interpret the Impact Scores

Every Impact Score carries a plain-language label, so that the investor can read a company's real-world impact at a glance without interpreting the number. The label is simply a band of the 0–100 Impact Score. Microsoft's score of 71, for example, falls in the Positive band. Ziggma applies the same labels wherever the score appears — on a single stock's Impact tab and across every holding in a portfolio view.

Label Impact Score Meaning
Profound 80–100 Strong, broad net-positive impact across the environmental and social causes measured.
Positive 60–79 More positive than negative impact across most material causes.
Mixed 40–59 Positive and negative impacts roughly offset.
Negative 20–39 Net impact leans harmful, with shortfalls outweighing positive contributions.
Harmful 0–19 Substantial net harm across the causes measured.


Impact topics covered

ACA Ethos calculates scores across ten impact themes relevant to private investors. Each theme aggregates multiple topic-level scores — covering everything from a company's climate action and water usage to its labor practices and corporate governance standards. Together they give you a 360-degree view of where a company is creating positive change and where it falls short.

🌡 Climate Action
⚖️ Gender Equality
📚 Quality Education
🏥 Affordable Healthcare
🌊 Healthy Oceans
🏭 Fair Labor
💡 Innovation
♻️ Sustainable Resources
🌿 Biodiversity
💧 Water & Sanitation


Data sources

ACA Ethos sources data from five categories of inputs, each subject to multi-layer quality control before integration. For self-directed investors, this matters: the quality of your impact screening is only as good as the data behind it. Ethos's multi-source approach — refreshed monthly, with controversy monitoring running multiple times daily — means the scores you see in Ziggma reflect what's happening in the world now, not what a company reported two years ago.

Source type Examples Refresh
Corporate disclosures Sustainability reports, annual filings, CDP submissions Annual + on update
Government & regulatory EPA, EU regulatory databases, national statistics agencies Monthly
NGOs & academic bodies Human rights organizations, academic research institutions Monthly
Licensed third-party providers Specialist data vendors for specific metric categories Monthly
Media monitoring Automated scraping + manual analyst review across 7+ markets Multiple times daily


All data passes through multi-layer quality control and validation in a staging environment before release. Ethos performs randomized datapoint audits that must achieve 100% accuracy before data enters the live environment.

What the impact data looks like for a single stock

Every stock in Ziggma has an Impact tab that shows its complete impact profile in one place: one Impact Score, the topic scores beneath it, and a selection of key impact metrics behind each topic.

Microsoft (MSFT 🔎) is a useful example. Its Impact Score is 71, labeled Positive. That score resolves into topic scores including Climate Action (73), Sustainable Resource Use (70), Fair Labor Practices (51), and Accountability (30). Each topic opens onto its underlying metrics.

Under Climate Action, Microsoft shows a Global Warming Potential (also referred to as Implied Temperature Alignment) of 1.5°C, a Carbon Intensity of 59, and a Carbon Intensity Change of -8.2%. Under Fair Labor Practices, it shows a CEO-to-Median Worker Pay ratio of 408:1, an Employee Rating of 4.08/5, and a Gender Equality score.

Microsoft impact scores and metrics

Controversy monitoring

Ethos scans global media multiple times daily across major markets including the US, UK, Europe, Japan, India, Australia, and Brazil. Each controversy is reviewed by analysts who assign a severity score (1–10) and one or more of 25 category tags — covering human rights, environmental damage, labor practices, product safety, and more. Validated controversies are incorporated into the Impact Score as downward adjustments, regardless of whether the controversy is financially material to the company.

Ethical screens

Ziggma provides 85+ impact and ethical screens via ACA Ethos. These include fossil-free strategies, fair labor filters, deforestation-free criteria, gender equality screens, and transparency and accountability screens. Screens can be combined with Ziggma's fundamental stock analysis in a single portfolio view.

Important:  How impact scores on Ziggma differ from ESG risk ratings

ESG and impact reflect two fundamentally different vantage points. Confusing them is one of the main reasons ESG investing has attracted greenwashing criticism. A company can score well on MSCI or Sustainalytics simply by managing its regulatory and reputational exposure effectively, regardless of whether it is actually reducing emissions, protecting workers, or avoiding harm. Ziggma's Impact Score is built on a different premise: that what matters is real-world outcomes, not risk-adjusted optics.

Limitations

Where companies do not disclose certain data, Ethos models values using peer-group averages adjusted for revenue or workforce size.
Coverage varies by market and company size. Larger companies with robust disclosure practices tend to have higher data density than smaller companies or those in markets with weaker reporting standards. The underlying impact methodology is developed and owned by ACA Ethos.

FAQ

Ziggma's impact data is powered by ACA Ethos, an independent impact data provider. Ethos aggregates about 600 environmental and social metrics per company, sourced from corporate disclosures, government databases, NGOs, licensed third-party providers, and continuous media monitoring. Most metrics are refreshed monthly. The same dataset underpins Ziggma's approach to impact investing.

ESG risk ratings measure how environmental, social, and governance factors affect a company's financial performance. Real-world impact measures the reverse: how a company affects people and the planet. A company can score well on an ESG rating by managing its regulatory and reputational exposure, while still scoring low on real-world impact. Ziggma's Impact Score focuses on outcomes — a distinction covered in ESG vs. impact investing.

Yes. Where a company does not disclose certain data, ACA Ethos models the value using peer-group averages adjusted for revenue or workforce size. Every modeled datapoint is clearly flagged in Ziggma. You can exclude modeled datapoints from your ratings if you prefer to rely only on reported figures.

Most metrics are refreshed monthly. Controversy monitoring runs multiple times daily across major global markets. Validated controversies feed into the Impact Score as downward adjustments, which is part of how Ziggma helps you spot greenwashing in a portfolio. All data passes multi-layer quality control before entering the live environment.

Yes. Ziggma lets self-directed investors combine fundamental quality analysis — the Ziggma Stock Score — with impact screening in a single portfolio view. Both can be applied together in the Portfolio Optimizer. This integration is a core difference from standalone ESG tools, which typically don't include fundamental financial data.

Ziggma provides 85+ impact and ethical screens via ACA Ethos. These include fossil-free strategies, fair labor filters, deforestation-free criteria, gender equality screens, and transparency and accountability screens. Screens combine with each other and with fundamental filters. A fossil-free screen, for example, underpins Ziggma's best fossil-free stocks list.

The underlying impact methodology is developed and owned by ACA Ethos, an independent, specialized impact data provider. Ethos performs randomized datapoint audits that must reach 100% accuracy before data enters the live environment. Ziggma does not conduct additional independent audits of the data.

Each label is a 20-point band of the 0–100 Impact Score. The scale runs from Harmful (0–19) and Negative (20–39) at the bottom, through Mixed (40–59), up to Positive (60–79) and Profound (80–100). Microsoft's Impact Score of 71 places it in the Positive band. The labels appear on every stock and across each holding in a portfolio, so you can scan for sustainable stocks without reading individual numbers.

Every stock has a dedicated Impact tab. It shows one Impact Score with its label, the topic scores beneath it — such as Climate Action, Sustainable Resource Use, Fair Labor Practices, and Accountability — and the named ACA Ethos metrics behind each topic. A Controversies feed lists recent flagged events with a severity tag and date. You can review the same profile for your own holdings in the Portfolio Checkup, then act on it with steps to reduce your portfolio's climate impact.

Ziggma scores ETFs and mutual funds, not only individual companies. A fund's Impact Score reflects the weighted average of the impact scores of the companies it holds. This look-through means a clean-energy ETF and a broad-market ETF can carry very different Impact Scores, even inside the same portfolio.